OBEDIENCE IS SIMPLE, BUT NOT EASY!
When God spoke to the nation of Israel, He gave them one simple direction:
Here are My commandments, precepts and principles. Keep them and that is all you need to do. I will bless you in return.
In other words, God told Israel that all she needed to do was obey Him. How simple is that? One word: OBEDIENCE. It's easy to obey. You don't need to devise why or how or where something is to be done or happen Follow what God says to do and He takes care of the details. How much easier could it be than that?
Today's Christian has the same directive from Jesus: "Keep My commandments." His commandments, found throughout the Old and New Testaments, are summed as follows:
"Jesus answered, "The foremost is: 'Hear, Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is one; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.' The second is this: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'"
Jesus emphasized obedience to God the night He taught His disciples before going to Gethsemane:
"If you keep My commandments, you will remain in My love; just as I have kept My Father's commandments and remain in His love."
Jesus kept God's commandments and that qualified Him to be our beloved Savior and sin-bearer! Even so, we are to obey God's commandments to fit us for heaven where our Savior intercedes for us.
If it is that plain and obedience is simple, why is it that so many who profess to be Christians fail to keep God's word? They walk pretty much like they did before professing to believe in Jesus. Their lives are not different and their standards are not elevated above breaking God's commandments. Why aren't they obedient?
Being obedient is not the real issue, after all. Being willing to be obedient is the crux of the problem. Until a person is willing to obey, he or she will be obedient on a selective basis. They will obey what fits their life style, but omit or slide over what is repulsive or difficult to do. Their will has not been submitted to Jesus. They have not died to themselves and to sin.
It is important to emphasize one thing: to be 95 percent obedient is disobedience. Obedience must be complete and entire in our lives to be real obedience. To love God with ALL our heart, soul, mind, and strength means there is NO room for a little love of something or someone else. It leaves out all room for compromise.
As a whole, our society is wedded to convenience. Technology makes food preparation quick and easy. You can have a meal ready in minutes! The internet provides an easy way to shop from the computer keyboard. AI now writes papers for students, pulls together facts into a succinct summary for history buffs, and produces steps to follow for nearly anything you want to make or do.
But obedience is not always convenient. It offers no shortcuts. Sometimes God interrupts what we are doing to direct us elsewhere, even if we are enjoying what we're engaged in at the moment. Or, He may ask us to love someone who in human terms is unlovely. He may tell us to contribute money or goods we don't have on hand or to stop and pray right then! Each is an interruption of our personal activity, and the human will chafes against the inconvenience, refusing to obey and putting God off by promising to do what He wants on our terms at a different time that means when we are ready. That is 95 percent obedience, disobedience bowing to convenience, and it is sin.
So, it finally comes down to the real issue: Who is in charge? God or self?
When I was a child, our mother did most of the disciplining because our father was working. But if we did something really awful, Mother would say, "Just wait until your father gets home!" And we trembled! We knew he meant business and we hated a whipping from him. We rightly feared our dad.
We should have the same awe and respect for God, but the fear of God has evaporated from our society. It has largely disappeared from the Church, as well. Getting saved these days is so easy that one merely has to repeat a prayer after the pastor or leader and they are declared born again!
But no repentance takes place. True repentance is not a requisite for that kind of salvation. No conviction and sorrow for sin and turning from it to God happens. People resume their ordinary life instead of being transformed.
Real repentance brings back the fear of God and an unwillingness to disobey Him. Sin is shunned.
Hmmm. It looks like the real underlying reason we do obey God is because we have a fear and respect for Him that summons obedience in us every time.
We've indentified the real reason most Church people don't obey God, too. They never have truly repented of their sins that are disobedience to God's laws! They have never been convicted about their sins to cause them to repent. As a result, they do not fear God. It's easy for them NOT to obey His commandments They are unwilling to surrender their will to the Creator and Sustainer of their being.
As long as a person holds tight to his will and right to do as he wishes, he will not and cannot obey the commandments Jesus stated above. You see, as long as one's self is on the throne of the heart, that person loves himself more than he loves God---and Jesus said we are to love God with ALL of our being. God must be on the throne. Then obedience becomes easy and establishes the way in which we walk every moment of each day.
Now it's up to you, dear reader, to figure out where along the route you stand. Have you ever really repented of your sins? Do you really fear God? Have you surrendered your will to the will of God? Each of us is responsible for coming into alignment with God's will through obedience. That is your assignment. Now obey it!