Previous Challenge Entry (Level 1 – Beginner)
Topic: Obedience (01/31/05)
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TITLE: We are called to obedience | Previous Challenge Entry
By Richard Krejcir
02/01/05 -
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Obedience (Deuteronomy 13: 4; 1 Samuel 15:22; Proverbs 19:16; Acts 5:29; John 14:14; 15:14; 2 Corinthians 10:5; Hebrews 13:17) is submitting to what God requires of us. This character motivates us to keep seeking our Lord and cleaving to Him, regardless of the circumstances, so we will be able to keep His precepts and be loyal to His call. It is also recognizing authority and direction from others, such as the pastor and church, so winning situations can result.
Disobedience, Defiance, and Rebellion are the opposites. With these attitudes, we will flee from God’s love and precepts, ignore His call, and just do our own thing. We will have no fear of God; we will do as we please, thus placing us on a path of chaos, strife, and destruction. We will have no desire to serve Him or do the right thing outside of obligation. We will miss out on true intimacy, destroy relationships, hinder growth in ourselves and others, miss out on maturity, and on the wonder of His plan.
The counterfeit to obedience is creating our own opportunities and the devotion and zeal to go with it. Like the raging euphoria that sporting events generate is a substitute to the devotion that we should have to our Lord. There is nothing wrong with sporting events, and nothing wrong with cheering for them, but why can’t we do that for God? Enthusiasm paves a dangerous path when it refuses to learn and yield to God’s glory.
Our nature is to do our own thing. Our society thrives on it. But, perhaps a better way is to sacrifice ourselves in devotion for God and not let other substitutions get in the way. The false devotions that get in the way (such as family, school, work and career) are sometimes good, and even necessary, but do not let their cause get in the way of your obedience to the Lord. Because if this is all you have (these other devotions), you end up having nothing.
Obedience must permeate everything; and through this lesson my goal is to teach you just that. Obedience is the capstone to our stones of faith and life in Christ. God wants us first. So, how do you find God’s will? By obeying Him, His commands, His grace, His love, His will and nothing else.
A sense of duty should rise from our obedience, as well as a sense of heroism. The Christian walk is not always on the mount of transfiguration, but in the valleys below. Where we shine is not recorded by our fellow people, but in heaven above. So our obedience is not based on human recognition, but on heavenly endowment.
When God touches us, our eyes are open to Him. Yet, remember the struggle of our sin nature. If we love Jesus with passion and conviction, then the outcome will be obvious. If we are determined to do something else, as we warm the pews with our rears, then our eyes become closed. The closure of our eyes is our choice and our choice alone; “Unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.” John 12:24. Will you allow your life to be rooted in the soil of Christ and what He has done so we can rise in maturity by complying and learning in His word?
It’s not about you; it’s about God. It’s not what we do that makes us a Christian; it’s what Jesus has done for us! So, let God work in you and have Him open your eyes to the fallacies to avoid, and embrace the wonders of His truth.
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