The LORD has been convicting me lately about obedience. Mainly about this blog. I am not at all computer savvy. I CAN use a computer a little bit but nothing about it is intuitive, except using the QWERTY keyboard that I mastered in the 10th grade. I’d rather not think about how long ago that was.
Anyway, I have been less than diligent about getting this thing going. I have help from Mr. R, or it wouldn’t be happening at all. I also have a small number of posts available at the moment. I actually like some of them. I have been working on some personal writing that helps me sort things called “Reflections”, a sort of computer journal. But I am not consistent. Consequently, nearly every sermon I’ve heard for the past little bit, or devotion I’ve read or any actually good meme that’s come across my feed has had a mention of obedience or not squandering talents or something else that Holy Spirit hightlights for me. Just for me. Just because I’m not living up to what I say I believe. I certainly deserve it. And more. The mercy God gives me is what I do not deserve. The love and compassion and care. I don’t deserve anything good, but He gives the good anyway.
Even when I am being chastised, He is gentle with me. His love knows no bounds. After all, “greater love has no man than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.” (John 15:13 NKJV). No one in their right mind would question such love.
But the next verse is the clincher. This is what is required to prove that I really am a friend of God : “You are My friends if you do whatever I command you.” (John 15:14 NKJV). OUCH!
He does love us. He loves every one of us. But we need to ask ourselves, how much do I love Him? Really love Him?
It’s time for me to come to grips with the understanding that loving Him requires repenting from disobedience and turning to obedience. Disobedience is a willful choice to ignore Him and His call for what I want to do and what I think is best or easiest or more fun or more profitable in some way. In contrast, obedience is a willful choice to submit to Him and His guidance. It is deciding to put aside what I think I want to accept what He gives. Trusting in His faithfulness. How could I lose in making that choice? I can’t.
So why is it so difficult to do? That answer I know. It’s my inherited sin nature. You have the same thing. We all inherited from Adam a nature that wants our own way, that chooses disobedience over submission naturally. Yet, it is still a choice. We can choose to do better, to put down the device, and get on task with what He has called us to do. And we each have a distinct calling from Him. He wants to use us in unique ways. He has a plan for us and following that plan will bring more satisfaction than any other option on the planet.
After Joshua had led the Israelites into Canaan, the land which God had promised to them for generations, he called the people together to renew their covenant with the LORD. Yet, he realized that we all have to make a choice. In Joshua 24:14, he calls upon the people to “serve the LORD in sincerity and in truth” and he repeats the phrase “serve the LORD” at the end of the verse. But, even as he had witnessed miracle after miracle in his life as God delivered the people from slavery and led them for 40 years in the wilderness, Joshua knew that serving Him in obedience is not an automatic thing. As much as he wanted to see his people serving God wholeheartedly, he knew each one has to make his or her own choice.
Today, we are all still faced with a choice: willful submission or willful disobedience. As for me, I will serve the LORD.
And if it seems evil to you to serve the LORD, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve. . . But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD. Joshua 24:15