Lifestyle of repentance and joy

Jesus says, “Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me” (John 14:21, NIV).
There was a time when I tended to overlook commands of Jesus such as lose your life, deny yourself love your enemies... During those years, I was not happy. I sensed something of spiritual death in my life. What a transformation when I started facing up to the challenge in His commands.
Every failure to live up to them drove me into the arms of Jesus in repentance. New life flowed into me, the joy of the Lord was restored, and He could use me in His service. I realized that our happiness in this life and the next depends on our attitude towards His commands and whether trusting in the grace of Jesus, we make every effort to keep them. Seeing that our life and happiness depend on our attitude towards the laws of God, we should continually remind ourselves of these standards and inscribe them in our hearts. ~~ Mutter Basilea Schlink (1904-2001)