"After Everything He Has Done For You"

     The title for this blog post comes from an actual coversation I heard in college.  I was living in a house with some of my friends at the time.  It was a Saturday night, and two of my roommates had just come home from Saturday evening Mass.  As soon as they came in the door, they were complaining about how the priest had gone over the scheduled time by about 5 minutes.  After hearing them complain for a few minutes, another of my roommates had enough and said to the two roommates, "After everything He has done for you, you can't give God a few more minutes of your time."  As soon as he said this, my two roommates ceased their complaining.
     People today want religion to be easy and simple.  They want to go to church services for an hour, and only an hour, have the preacher speak for 30 minutes or less, and be out the building and onto their lives.  That's about as much commitment that people make to God these days.  And it's truly saddening to see people who proclaim to be Christians act this way "after everything He has done" for them.
     Probably the most recognized and memorized verse in the bible is John 3:16 - "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life."  Many people focus on the latter part of the verse, but I want to draw your attention to the first part - "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son..."  God loved everyone that has lived, is currently living, and will live so much that He sent His only Son to die for them.  God sent His only Son to die for you and me.  Just take a moment to think about that.  God sent His Son to die for us.  Jesus willing died on the cross for us.
     In Romans 5, Paul wrote to the Romans concerning Jesus' death.  In verse 7, he points out that people usually won't die for others.  Rarely will someone die for someone else, but only if that other person is a good person.  In verse 8, Paul tells us why Jesus' sacrifice for us was so incredible - "But God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."  Every person on earth is unworthy of the gift of salvation, but God sent His Son and Jesus willing died for us anyways.
     I know it's hard sometimes to live a true Christian life these days.  And sometimes we might complain about how hard it is.  I know I have done my fair share of complaining.  But whenever I do, I remember Jesus, I remember the life He lived, and I remember "everything He has done" for me, and those complaints suddenly disappear.  It's when I remember the sacrifice made for me that I begin to understand exactly what Jesus means when He said, "For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light." (Matt. 11:30).  Jesus has done the hard part for us.  How can we not rejoice and gladly obey Him "after everything He has done" for us?