This prayer is very powerful:
"O Holy Spirit, help me to obey — not because I see how it will be good for me, but simply because You command it."
(I will obey because I love You.) 🙏
✦ The Line Spurgeon Left Unsaid
Spurgeon wrote the prayer. Le completed it. Spurgeon said: not because I see how it will be good for me, but simply because You command it. And Le added the seven words that reveal the heart behind the obedience: I will obey because I love You.
Taylor's first act of love from September 20: love is obedient. Taylor's final test from September 19: not what you believe or hope but what you love. And now Le says it in her own words — the motive behind every commandment kept, every cross accepted, every patient step on the road: because I love You.
Duty obeys and grows tired. Fear obeys and grows bitter. Love obeys and grows deeper. Le does not obey to earn — she obeys because she was forgiven much and loves much. 🙏
"How careful God is of His people! How concerned He is for them — not only for their survival but for their comfort. Does He say, 'Strengthen My people'? Does He say to the angel, 'Protect My people'? Does He say to the heavens, 'Drop down food to feed My people'? All that, and more.
But to show us that He cares not only about our needs but also about our happiness, He says, 'Comfort, yes, comfort My people!' (Isaiah 40:1). He would have us not only His living people, and His protected people, but His happy people too."
"Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God."
✦ His Happy People
Yesterday — the demolition and the rebuild. The wake up call. The old house torn down. The new heart given. And today — the same God who demolished the old house now says: I want you happy in the new one.
Spurgeon climbs a ladder of care: survival, protection, provision — and more. God says strengthen. God says protect. God says feed. But then — beyond what was already generous — God says comfort. He will not only give bread but honey. Not only milk but wine and milk as well. Not only the necessities but the joy.
"Comfort, yes, comfort." Said twice. Because once was not enough. The Father's yearning heart — attentive even to the small things in the lives of His children. Comfort that one with a tearful eye. Comfort that child of mine with an aching heart. That is Le's God — the God who does not stop at keeping us alive but insists on making us glad. 🙏
"He is glad to feed His people, but more than that, He delights in giving them rich and satisfying things to make their hearts glad. He will not only give them bread, but honey too. He will not simply give them milk, but wine and milk as well.
'Comfort, yes, comfort My people' — it is the Father's yearning heart, attentive even to the small things in the lives of His children. 'Comfort' that one with a tearful eye. 'Comfort' that child of mine with an aching heart. 'Comfort' that poor grieving one. 'Comfort, yes, comfort My people, says your God.'"
Bread and honey. Milk and wine. God's provision is not bare — it is rich. Spurgeon's granaries from September 29 — full, the door open, the bounty declared ours. Taylor's magazine of grace. And now this: God does not ration joy. He does not parcel out happiness in measured spoonfuls. He delights in giving rich and satisfying things. The delight is His — in giving. The gladness is ours — in receiving. And the two meet in the word comfort. 🙏
"Do Christians have a crown? Oh yes — but they do not wear it every day. They have a crown, but their coronation day has not yet arrived. They have been anointed as monarchs; they have some of the authority and dignity of monarchs — only they are not crowned monarchs yet.
But the crown is made. God will not have to order heaven's craftsmen to fashion it later: it is made already, hanging up in glory. God has 'laid up for me a crown of righteousness' (2 Timothy 4:8)."
"Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing."
✦ The Crown Is Made
Yesterday — the heart-house is finished. Today — the crown is made. Not ordered. Not in production. Not pending approval. Made. Hanging up in glory.
The pattern of the last two days: God finishes things before we see them finished. The new heart — already given. The crown — already made. The brick-house — coming, in God's time. The things Le waits for on earth are already completed in heaven. The coronation day has not yet arrived — but the crown hangs ready. The pilgrimage is not over — but the destination is prepared.
And Paul's word opens the door wider: not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing. The crown is for those who love. Love again — the motive, the test, the qualification. Not performance. Not achievement. Love. 🙏
"To the Christian there is no argument so powerful as God's will. God's will is the believer's law. He does not ask what it will profit him, or what good effect it will have on others. He simply says, 'Does my Father command it?'
And his prayer is, 'O Holy Spirit, help me to obey — not because I see how it will be good for me, but simply because You command it.' It is the Christian's privilege to do God's commandments, 'obeying the voice of His word' (Psalm 103:20)."
"If ye love me, keep my commandments."
"Wherefore I say unto thee, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little."
✦ Does My Father Command It?
Spurgeon strips obedience down to one question: does my Father command it? Not: will this benefit me? Not: will others notice? Not: does this make sense? One question. One answer. One motive.
And then the prayer — the prayer Le called very powerful: O Holy Spirit, help me to obey — not because I see how it will be good for me, but simply because You command it. The prayer asks for help — because love-obedience is not willpower. It is the Spirit's work. The Holy Spirit who is the Teacher and the Helper (September 22) — He is the one who enables the love that obeys.
And Le's parenthetical — the completion: (I will obey because I love You.) Jesus said it in John 14:15: if ye love me, keep my commandments. Spurgeon said it in the prayer. Le said it in seven words. The whole arc from Taylor to Spurgeon — love is obedient, the final test is what you love, and the motive behind every kept commandment is: because I love You.
Forgiven much, loving much. Not obeying to be forgiven. Obeying because she already was. That is the freedom. That is the privilege Spurgeon names: it is the Christian's privilege to do God's commandments. Not burden. Privilege. Because love transforms the law into a letter from the Beloved. 🙏
"I will obey because I love You."
Le · Beauvoir · Mont-Saint-Michel · Spurgeon · The motive behind every commandment · Love obeys and grows deeperHis Happy People
God cares about survival, protection, provision — and more. He cares about our happiness. Not only bread but honey. Not only milk but wine. Comfort, yes, comfort My people.
The Crown Is Made
Not ordered. Not in production. Made already, hanging up in glory. The coronation day has not yet arrived — but the crown is finished. For all who love His appearing.
Because I Love You
Spurgeon's prayer: help me obey because You command it. Le's completion: I will obey because I love You. Love is the motive. Love is the test. Love obeys and grows deeper.
Spurgeon brings three — and Le completes the third with seven words.
Yesterday's demolition, today's comfort: Yesterday God demolished the old house and built the new one. Today He says: I want you happy in it. The sequence matters. First the new heart — then the comfort of the new heart. First the rebuild — then the honey, the wine, the gladness. God does not comfort the old house. He comforts His new creation.
The Father's yearning heart: Spurgeon's most tender passage in weeks. Comfort that one with a tearful eye. Comfort that child of mine with an aching heart. This is not theology. This is a Father bending down. The God who determines demolitions also whispers comfort. The same hand that tears down the rotten house wipes the tear from the eye of the one who watched it fall.
The crown and the heart-house: Yesterday — the heart-house is finished. Today — the crown is made. God finishes things in heaven before we see them finished on earth. The new heart: done. The crown: done. The brick-house: coming. Le lives between the finished and the not-yet-visible — and Spurgeon says: the important things are already hanging in glory.
Le's seven words: I will obey because I love You. This is the fruit of seven months of reading — Taylor, Smith, Spurgeon, Guyon, Jowett, the Pope at UNESCO. The whole arc arrives here: love is the motive. Not duty. Not fear. Not performance. Love. Taylor's first act: love is obedient. Taylor's final test: what you love. Spurgeon's prayer: help me obey because You command it. And Le's parenthetical: because I love You. The prayer is complete. The pilgrim has named the deepest reason. And the journal records the day it was said — October 2, 2026, at the foot of Mont-Saint-Michel. 🙏