Choose Obedience

If ye love me, keep my
commandments.

John 14:15

In viewing the Christian life, I feel one of the hardest parts of it all is that of obedience. I guess it shouldn't be, considering all Jesus has done for us past, present and into the future. After all, we have the wonderful privilege of basking in the love of God every minute we live and breathe, so what's the problem?

Someone asked me a few years ago what I considered the main theme of the Bible to be. I told her that I felt at the time and still do that every word of the Bible is penned with the ink of God's love. However, I feel the next resounding theme of God's Word is that of obedience. We can see it all through the Old and New Testaments that affected not just Bible characters, but real live human beings with similar feelings we have come to know in our own lives.

Follow my thinking for a few moments with my own paraphrases:
It all started from the very beginning of God's Word when God spoke to that first couple in Eden about that one tree in the middle of the garden...”Don't touch it.”
Noah...”Build an ark.” (He didn't know what an ark [boat] or even rain was.)
Abraham...”Sacrifice your son.”
Moses...”Lead my people back home from Egypt.”
Joshua...”March around Jericho with my people and the walls will fall.”
Ezra...”Lead My people back to Jerusalem.”
Nehemiah...”Rebuild the walls of Jerusalem.”
Esther...”Speak to the King on behalf of our people.”
Isaiah, Jeremiah and the rest of the OT prophets...”Prophesy!”
Joseph...”Take Mary and the child to Egypt.” (Of course, more could be said here.)
Disciples...”Follow Me.”
John from a desolate island...”Write...”

This list could be filled in with so many other people from Scripture. I think of the times when Jesus healed people of various maladies. That healing was often accompanied by a command where the sick or impaired person was asked to respond in some way...”Take up thy bed and walk.” “Maid, arise.” “Weep not.” “Young man, I say unto thee, arise.” I am wondering what would have happened if those folks had refused to obey Jesus in those moments. It was a way of their claiming their healing. Would they have been healed? It's interesting to contemplate.

I'm wondering in the course of my own spiritual walk what all I may have missed because of disobedience. I know there were times when the Holy Spirit encouraged me to arise out of my circumstances and walk strong and tall, but I was happy attending my own pity party. One of my daughter's spoke of a friend of hers who had young children. When one of those children would become a little on the misbehaving side and hadn't responded to the mother's look, she would go to that child and would quietly say in his ear, “Choose obedience.” She was admonishing that children not only to behave correctly, but those two words also served as a warning of consequences that could result.

How often have we read our Bibles and found wise counsel for living, but we quickly move on to the next verse or page, not realizing that we please God most when we choose to obey Him. What a shame when God has to get our attention and perhaps teach us hard lessons that could be avoided if we would only make the good choice of obedience.

In the Gospels, there were people who were amazed at the power in Jesus to perform the miracles He did. After calming the raging sea, those present marveled that even the wind and waves obeyed Him. There was a healing where even unclean spirits obeyed Jesus. In Acts chapter five, we read how we ought to obey God rather than man. This is where many of us fail. We tend to be “people pleasers”

I've always felt bad that my children were born in the 1970's. I so wish they could have come into an America where there was respect for authority, no riots (racial or otherwise), unconditional respect for teachers and policemen, proper attire, music that made sense and when parents were obeyed without sass. Those are things they were born into and I knew they would never know anything like the “happy days” of the 1950's. Those folks born after 1960 have had to learn, often the hard way, what obedience was. I'm so grateful that my children weathered those days and are God-serving and loving adults. So what is obedience?

Obedience: complying with an order, request to another's authority.

That may be hard at times, but with God, because of His great love, obedience should really be our first response to Him. The thing is, who or whatever we follow is where our allegiance will be. Paul says:

Know ye not, that in whom ye yield yourselves
servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey;
whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto
righteousness?
But God be thanked, that ye were the servants
of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart
that form of doctrine which was delivered you.
Being then made free from sin, ye became
the servants of righteousness.
Romans 6:16-18

Here's the problem...we have to know what God wants us to obey which means being in His Word consistently. We will be held accountable for every word of it whether we have read it or not. Here at the beginning of a new year is a great time to set some Bible reading goals.

Impossible to believe but it's true, that as we obey God and His commands, we will walk in spiritual freedom. So....

God+Me+Obedience=Spiritual Freedom

You see, it begins with God and me being in right relationship to which I can add obedience. The result will be a spiritual freedom beyond all explanation. Too often in our day, there are distractions that can keep us from walking in the freedom God intends for us. May it become as normal as breathing for us to be God's obedient children. His desire is that we CHOOSE OBEDIENCE.

Dear Jesus, thank you for the clarity of Your words to us. Empower us to want to walk in obedience to You not for ulterior motives but simply out of our love for You. We really do love You. In Your precious name....Amen