Obedience is not a buzzword. Nowadays everyone wants to be independent and do whatever they want. That’s why obedience is not very fashionable. And because faith is trusting and obeying God, faith is not very fashionable either. But faith in Christ gives us something eternal, something that never goes out of fashion. With the words of Paul, the gospel “is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes” (Romans 1:16, NIV). The blessings of obedience are out of this world.

Why then do we act indifferently? We might receive faith as a form of life insurance but it does not appear to affect our choices or our life in general.

It seems a bit that we don’t believe in God’s ability to influence the affairs of the world. Hence we have stopped honoring him as God. We assume we can do whatever we want and that God won’t do anything. This process darkens our hearts and we are venturing into dangerous waters.

For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. (Romans 1: 21, NIV,*)

Why then does God allow us to show contempt for his kindness and patience? You know, why doesn’t he order us to bow to him and live obediently? Because he loves us so much that he gave us the freedom to choose to live like he didn’t even exist. That’s why we crucified Jesus and that’s why keep on despising him.

And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God or consider Him worth knowing [as their Creator], God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do things which are improper and repulsive. (Romans 1:28, AMP,*)

My take on obedience

If you don’t want your heart to darken, consider God worth knowing. Make time to spend time with him as often as possible. I know this requires discipline and some planning and even then it does not always happen. But let’s not forget that God provides his power for this. God always give more than takes. Abundantly more. The blessings of obedience keep on surprising us.

God has not canceled the law when Jesus fulfilled it. Still today, we are called to obedience and living according to God’s will. But now we have the Holy Spirit on our side. Now we get to live with God, empowered by his grace. And the world can’t provide anything better. Obedience is not a path to boredom but a path to abundance.

Dear God,
Forgive us for turning our backs to you way too often.
Cleanse us from all unrighteousness,
prepare our hearts for you.
Open our eyes to see your worth and your holiness.
Enable us to live obediently.
We surrender to you, Lord.
May only your will happen in our lives.
In Jesus’ name,
Amen

Q4U: What’s your take on obdedience?

Be blessed, my fellow pilgrim, as you seek God with everything you’ve got!

* [As you might have noticed, I enjoy reading the Bible in different translations and love comparing them. I have started linking the Bible verses to Biblegateway.com so you can easily read (and compare) them in the different versions I’ve used while preparing each post.]

Linking up today with Dance with Jesus and Five-minute Friday. Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash.