| Obedience to God Actually all of us know what obedience to God is like although we cannot put it quite effectively in words. One thing for sure about this act is, we can choose to go for it or against it. More importantly, deep in our hearts we are aware that God wants only complete and sincere obedience from our hearts. "God examines our minds and searches our hearts.." Jeremiah 17:10 Our obedience is a very personal experience we share only with God. It is about knowing God's Will for us and being totally submissive to it. When we obey God, was it out of love and trust? Did we obey whole-heartedly or reluctantly; completely according to God's Will or only part of it? And when we disobey, did we find out what went wrong and repent? Only God knows! We need to be very honest with ourselves. There are many great examples of complete obedience to refer to in the bible. To name a few:- ## When Abraham was told to make his young and only son Issac as the sacrificial lamb, Abraham obeyed quietly until God stopped him. ## St Paul, the apostle, obeyed God's command and went around spreading the gospel for the rest of his life.. ## Nicodemus, the money lender, obeyed the Lord Jesus by returning all the money to those whom he had taken. ## Gideon (Book of Judges) went ahead with the war against whoever & whenever God had instructed. These men obeyed God whole-heartedly, with love and faith in God. Such is the obedience God appreciates - no questions asked, without any doubt, nothing compromised, just trust and obey! God gives us the choice to obey and having the 2-nature (old & new self) in us, we may find complete obedience quite a struggle. However, we need not be unduly worried as God assured us that He will help us overcome. God is alive and His Holy Spirit is dwelling in our hearts. So, in order to defeat the old self (to overcome the influences of our self), we need to allow the Holy Spirit to be incharge of our lives. And how do we do it? We need to build a good relationship with God in order for the Holy Spirit to manifest himself in our lives. It is like 2 persons wanting to have a strong relationship. When they spend more time together, sharing their joy and pain, learning their characters, these 2 persons will surely develop a strong bond between them. Likewise for our relationship with God, we have to do our part. We should train ourselves to be sharing and telling Him anything and everything in prayers and communion. In this way, we are actually sharing our daily living with Him. The more time we spend sharing with our Lord Jesus, the more intimate will be our relationship with Him. The intimacy we share will help us become more and more sensitive to God speaking to us and also to feel His path for us. God speaks to us not only through the bible but also through our hearts (conscience) and even through anybody or any circumstances. Our love and trust in God will grow alongside with our intimacy with God and this intimacy helps us know God's Will. The more we love God, the more we want to obey His commands. The more we obey, the further our love will grow and it goes on and on. Maintaining this rhythm is our way of strengthening our faith in Christ! Then we may ask : what is God's plan for me (to obey)? Well, no one knows! However, as a child of God, we have to believe and trust that God will reveal it to us; step by step and in His perfect timing. We do our part by being patient and to remain focus on God and with the help of the Holy Spirit, we seek out God's Will day by day. There are many lessons on obedience to be learnt from the bible. Let us first look at Moses in the book of Exodus. Moses was appointed by God to lead the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt to the Promised Land. When God told Moses of His plan, Moses was hesitant to obey and instead he replied : "Who am I .....? " (Exo 3:11) "What if .........? " (Exo 4:1 ) "I am slow at speech and tongue ......" (Exo 4:10) "Please send someone else ..............." (Exo 4:13) What was Moses driving at? Let us take note of the way he replied. Moses had responded negatively in the hope to disqualify himself for his part in God's plan - he wanted an opt-out. He had projected himself as insignificant, weak, reluctant, incompetent and incapable of accomplishing such an impossible task. In so doing, Moses had not only disobeyed God's Will, thwarted God's plan and also doubted (speculated) God's power to do the impossible. We do not doubt Moses' faith in God and infact we can relate very much to him. It is quite common to find ourselves making the same kind of excuses one time or another to ward off the things we do not like to do. Like Moses, we often disobey God but we do not see it as a problem in our Christian living. For example : Someone invites you to do a sharing during one of the Christian meeting, what was your reaction? (a) Did you accept the invitation bravely and pray that God will help you do it for his glory? (b) Did you hesitate and have the same kind of excuses like Moses? ---"Who am I?" (I'm a nobody in the church.) ---"What if.. ?" (the other members do not understand what I say) --- "I am .." (not good at speaking in big group) --- "Please send someone else." (Why me?) It is time to learn that God may send His vessels (of mercy & wrath) to deliver us His Will. We must not worry or fear that we are not up to task but rather we should receive it joyously and complete it. For if we sincerely trust in God, we will know that He will be there to help us accomplish His plan. (Just like the way God had helped Moses.) There is another aspect of obedience which we can learn from the experience of King Saul. (Refer 1 Samuel Chapter 15) God had clearly instructed King Saul to wipe out the whole tribe of the Amalekite including all the livestocks, nothing to be spared. King Saul went ahead but he brought back King Agag alive and allowed his army to save the best cattle and sheep. God was disappointed that King Saul disobeyed his commands but King Saul thought otherwise. King Saul not only protested - "But I did obey the Lord." v.20 but also gave his reasons for his actions "I feared the people and listened to their voice." v.24 There are 2 lessons for us here: Firstly, like King Saul, we do not see our own folly. We not only pick and choose when it comes to God's Will but we also tend to add in our desires. In our own dimension, we have even managed to 'qualify' and 'quantify' our obedience to God. We size up the situation, found ourselves the reasons (or excuses) and decide upon the "amount of obedience" required. To many of us, so long as we did obey, even if it is a little, it is still obedience afterall. As did King Saul, many of us do not see that by not completing God's command is disobedience and doing it our way is as good as defying God. Illustration : You are instructed to collect 10pcs of jigsaw pieces but you are willing to collect less. What good does it make? In the same manner, our complete obedience is essential for God to accomplish His plan for us. The second lesson is this: Our concern for what others think and say matters more than God's command and this is that problem known as "Self-conciousness". This self-consciousness is actually others' consciousness of what other people may think or say about what we say or do. When we succumb to our self-consciousness, we are actually taking the "words of men" to our hearts. So, what about the Words of God and its priorty in us? Thus, we are to be careful not to allow the "words of men" to determine our behavior towards our God. It is not difficult to obey God in good times but when the going gets tough, do we choose to remain steadfast and obey God? Very often, it is during the more difficult times that our obedience to God is being tested. (Obedience needs practice and each test is a perfect training ground.) Sometimes, in our daily lives, we become so pre-occupied with our ideals, our hardwork and our desire to succeed that we have little regard for God's Plan for us. We may have prayed to God about what we have been doing or intending to do but we must always remember that informing God is not equivalent to obtaining His approval. So if things do not turn out as we have planned, we must not think that God is against our interests. We should check if we have been obeying God's directions or not instead of complaining that God is not blessing us. Remember Pro16:9 "In his heart a man plans his course but the Lord determines his steps." This also means that no matter how much we feel what we are doing is already the best of the best, it still may not be part of God's plan for us. We have to believe and accept the fact that is always wiser to be submissive (obedient) to God's Will and His timing and to stay in harmony with His plan. "For it is God who works in you to will and to act according to His good purpose." (Phi 2:13) When we are unsure if what we are doing or intending to do is godly, make it known to God (seek His approval). God tells us not to be anxious about anything but pray about everything and the peace and power of God will guard our hearts. God also tells us that "whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable and if anything is excellent and praiseworthy - put is into practice." (Phi 4:4-9) Yes, the key to obedience is to practice what our God wants us to do. And we do everything God wants us to do without complaining or arguing and in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. If we are careful with the way we live (in accordance to God's principles) and if we walk sincerely and faithfully in obedience and with love for God, God is faithful and just and He will bless us with His goodness and mercy all the days of our lives. Therefore, we have to understand that when God shows us His way, we must learn to make ourselves available to obey whole-heartedly and not try to 'opt-out'. Lord Jesus said "if you love me, you will obey what I command." - John 14:15 Isn't it time to ask ourselves? : Have we been managing our obedience dutifully as a child of God and obeying the way God wants of us? Irene |
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| Keeping God's command is what counts - 1 Corinthians 7:19 |
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