Before you were hired, there were specific instructions or guidelines your employer gave you. It’s commonly known as the employee handbook. This book entails what is expected of the employee and what the company will or will not tolerate. It may also provide grounds for termination or things that will cause you to be fired. Not only are we provided a hard copy, but also these stipulations are told to us by the hiring manager. This is to ensure that WE KNOW and are without excuse.

These guidelines become subtly and subconsciously embedded in your brain because YOU KNOW if you do this or that, you will lose your job. Your employer provided you with constraints. A constraint is something that limits or restricts something or someone.

• A dog collar, constrains a dog from running around crazy.
• A fence or gate constrains animals in a zoo to a confined area.
• A child gate constrains toddlers from falling downstairs and injuring themselves at a daycare.
• A password constrains others from accessing your personal information.

Have you ever done something you did not want to do? I mean everyone else did it so it had to be okay, right? Then you had a thought: “I know this is not me, but we are celebrating, it’s all in fun; what or who is this going to hurt?” You had no constraints.

The word of God and the love we have for Him, to not hurt our Father, should constrain or prevent us from doing anything or associating with anyone that offends Him. It shouldn’t take much effort. It should not even be a thought. Simply because of the love He has shown, we should want to prove that we love Him just as much, and so we SHOULD constrain ourselves. In other words, are you glorifying God by being compelled by His love? Just our experience and testimony alone should be enough of a constraint to simply say NO to sin!

When you TRULY love someone, there are certain things that love prevents you from doing. I don’t know about you, but I am convinced, that I am in love with this man who denied Himself for me. No one else was willing to do that. If I had to rely on my own dad, who lives right here in the city and has nothing to do with me or my children for no reason, I could not rely on Him to even be present at my funeral. If he wasn’t present at any graduations (elementary through graduate school) and was not present at my wedding…SURELY I couldn’t expect him to be present at my funeral, let alone sacrifice his life to save mine. Don’t feel bad for me. Honey…he served his purpose. He got me here to serve my purpose for my Savior! But OH MY GOD AND MY SAVIOR Jesus. I don’t care who does not believe, I know He lives.

Jesus it’s not my love FOR you that constrains me but it is your love for US that constrains me. Your love is a constraining force in my life. I was dead, and now I am alive.

I am constrained and restricted and I love it! What about you? Does His love for you constrain or compel you to do what is right or do you live your life free, without restrictions as if you are God and you answer to no one? So what’s holding you back from sin?

2 Corinthians 5:14 (NKJV) For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died;