A lawyer tested Jesus, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to receive eternal life?” Jesus replied, “ How do you read the Law?” He answered, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.” Jesus responded, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.” Luke 10:25–28
Jesus did not always respond directly when his opponents tested his commitment to the Father. But here he did: “Do this, and you will live eternally.” Part of the “this” he commands us to “do” is to love God wholeheartedly and unreservedly. We must continually view God as being holy—as having infinite, unexcelled, and irreplaceable worth—to us. As we do, our hearts will generate a full-orbed delight as we grow in our experience of his grace and the recognition of his glory. This is the essence of real living. Jesus calls it “eternal life.” He doesn’t mean a mere extension to the length of our lives. Eternal life is an expansion of the quality of our living, which we begin to experience now as we live out our commitment to follow Jesus in the obedience of faith. God promised Abraham to act as his deity forever. Through Isaiah God promised that if we “look to him as our helper,” he will give us access to his presence. We will be citizens of the Kingdom of God forever. “To those who thirst for me, I will freely give the water of life, and I will be their deity and they will be my children.”
Lord Jesus, enable my hopeful love so that I am not sluggish, but imitate those who through faith and perseverance inherit these promises.
Promises for the Battle 
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