Obedience

It’s not a word many of us like to hear, perhaps it takes us back to our childhood where we had to obey our parents and teachers and seemed to have no choice but to be obedient.

Lately however, I’ve been thinking about our obedience to God’s Word. There are so many scriptures that give us direction, for our benefit, and some are commands that God expects us to follow.

It all comes down to our willingness and of course our choice but more importantly, it comes down to our faith.

It takes faith to be obedient when the cares or fears of this world are heavy, and we want to give into our feelings and old instant responses. It also takes courage because let’s face it, most of us get away with enough faith to believe there is a God and that He gave us salvation for our eternity!

Sadly though, that’s where most of us Christians stop and continue on as they’ve been doing all along.

I say ‘sadly’ because we miss out on some of the richest blessings when we challenge our fears, pride, self-reliance and our selfish desires and choose to be obedient to the Word of God.

I call that easy faith, and it profits us little, but the hard truth is, we will not live life as an overcomer with easy faith. We will not live a life of joy or peace when the storms of life roll over us. We will be angry, frustrated, bitter and living a joyless life.

Following are some Bible verses that will challenge our faith. It behooves us to read them often, get them into our minds, memorize them so like Jesus when He was tempted by satan, when we are likewise tempted to give in, or react badly, we can fight back with the Word of God.

Hey, if it was Jesus first response when tempted, shouldn’t it be ours?

James 1: 2,3 – Consider it all joy my brethren when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result so that you may be perfect & complete, lacking nothing.

Joy when one trial after another rolls over us, threatening to take us down? Whew!!

Phil 4:13 – I can do all things through Christ Who strengthens me.

Shall we challenge our fears with that one? What is your biggest fear?

1 Thess 5:18 – In everything give thanks, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

It’s God’s will, it’s not a suggestion, but a command.

Prov 3:5 – trust in the LORD with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding

This is a big one when we’re so used to doing things our own way, trusting our own ‘wisdom’ and ‘reasoning’ to do things. Is our wisdom or are our thoughts better than Gods? I’m reminded of Isaiah 55:9, For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Guess that puts us in our place! So much for pride in our own thoughts!!

Phil 4:6 – be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.

Again, this is not a suggestion.

2 Cor 10:5 – . . . and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.

There are so many more; the Beatitudes, the One-Anothers, and let’s consider >

1 Cor 13

4: Love is patient, kind, not jealous, does not brag and is not proud

5: Love does not act unbecomingly, does not seek it’s own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered

6: Love does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with truth

7: Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things & endures all things

8: Love never fails.

A whole blog could be written on these verses alone. Maybe one day!

Those are tough to be obedient to, but our obedience, though a difficult choice to make, always reaps multiple benefits from God. He rewards us in so many ways when we obey Him.

As James 1:3,4 says, ‘knowing that the testing your (our) faith produces endurance, and let endurance have its perfect result so that you (we) may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

Trusting in God in the hard times, being anxious for nothing, giving thanks no matter the circumstance, taking every thought captive and trusting in the LORD rather than ourselves when things go sideways, those are all difficult but . . . . we can do all these things because Christ in us strengthens us.

We must choose. It’s our choice to make but the outcome of being obedient far outweighs the difficulty of choosing to obey God.

Of course, we first must become familiar to the Word of God to know what it says and to what we must obey.

So let us read His Word and choose God’s way over our own way, and we won’t be disappointed.

Baruch Adonai,

Journey Girl, on her way to a more obedient life in God.

What does it mean to you?

I recently, well about 2 weeks ago, heard a song called, “Made for More” by Josh Baldwin and I loved the tune and the words. It went round and round in my mind for days!

But one line in particular kept catching my attention; I wasn’t made to be tending a grave.

When something like this catches me, I immediately want to know, ‘what does this mean? What does it mean to me. What is it God might want to show me?’

When we tend a grave, we cut the grass, plant flowers, keep the headstone clean. But I don’t have a grave to tend yet.

When I accepted Christ as my Savior, the old passed away and the new had come, I’ve been born again. I was baptized as a symbol of my death to the old way of living, a ‘walking dead’ kind of existence. Being born again, being born in the Spirit means living in newness of live. I don’t live the same way I lived before. I live in obedience to Christ, to the Word of God, I live to please God.

I turned my back on the old life, giving up living as the world does.

So, what was the grave I was tending? I’ve been playing with the notion that my old life was a kind of walking dead person. In that life I tried to make this ‘dead’ person look good. Make-up, hair styled approvingly, clothing that made me look good. I put on a happy face no matter what happened. I did everything I thought I should do in this world, in my life to look good on the outside, but inside I was dead, right?

I was one of the white-washed tombs Jesus accused the Pharisees of being. Look good on the outside, but stinking of decay on the inside.

And that’s what this line of the song means to me. I was tending a grave, my own dead spiritual life.

But as the song says further along, ‘I was made for more‘.

I was made to live with love, joy, peace, goodness, kindness and all the other attributes of the Fruit of the Spirit. I was made to follow what real love is according to 1 Cor 13, to be kind as Jesus was kind, to turn away wrath with a gentle answer, to think of others more than I think of myself, to put the needs of others before my own wants. So much of the Bible talks of how we live for more than just ourselves, how we live in the world but don’t let the world live in us.

I can attest to the truth, once I faithfully, or as faithful as possible, began living to please God, I became more content, happier, and more full of joy. I have more compassion, more mercy and kindness toward others and I have more faith in, and love God more.

These are some of the ways in which I believe I was made for more.

I could go deeper into Scripture and search out all the ways my life is ‘more’, but I think you understand the drift of my thoughts. Perhaps you can think of ways that mean more to you.

Blessings to you as you throw off the old dead habits and traditions that serve only to tend the grave of your old dead self, and walk into more of life that God made you for.

Baruch Adonai, (Blessed be the Lord)

Brenda

How do we see others?

I was watching a man and woman who had been married for many years. I could tell by the ease with which they interacted that they still loved each other very much.

They were not young and beautiful anymore, but they ‘saw’ each other.

When he looked her in the eye, I could tell by the way he looked he wasn’t seeing the older misshapen figure, the wrinkles, the grey hair. It seemed to me he didn’t even see the outer physical woman. He saw her spirit, her personality, the ‘real’ woman she had become. His love for her encompassed her physically, but he paid it no mind at all as he saw the most important part.

He saw her real beauty. He saw her compassion, her grace, her sense of humour. It seemed to me in that moment of looking her in the eye, he saw everything about her, the good and the not so good. And still, he loved her.

Though we all have our small peculiarities, that isn’t the bit that matters when we look with eyes of love.

Shakespeare said in his 116^th Sonnet,

Let me not to the marriage of true minds admit impediments;

Love is not love which alters when it alteration finds, or bends with the remover to remove.

O no, it is an ever-fixèd mark that looks on tempests and is never shaken;

It is the star to every wand’ring bark whose worth’s unknown, although his height be taken.

Love’s not time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks within his bending sickle’s compass come.

Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, but bears it out even to the edge of doom:

If this be error and upon me proved, I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

And for me, that says it all, except for one more thing.

God doesn’t see or really care about our outward appearance. He sees us with love, the kind of love that never alters. His love is an ever-fixed mark.

God sees our heart. He created each one of us. He made us in His image, gave us a physical body that serves us while we live on earth. That’s all our bodies are for, to live on this earth, to do His will.

That’s all and we got it so, so wrong.

The world looks on the outside and cares little for the real inner person. We might be in the world but we are not to live as the world lives.

So, it’s a choice, do we spend time caring what others think of our hair, the clothing we wear, if we wear make-up, how skinny we are or are not; if we conform to the world’s standards?

Or do we look people in the eye and accept them as someone whom Jesus died for? Do we care what they are wearing, if they are homeless or if they are well-to-do? Or do we see the real person, the one who loves, laughs, weeps and mourns? The scared, and hopeless?

If it makes no difference to the One who loves perfectly, why then do we care?

Not sure about anyone who’s reading this but for me I’d like to ban mirrors everywhere!! I want to care more about the person on the inside and not give a fig for what they look like on the outside. That’s the way of the world, I want to live God’s way.

God’s way is to see with eyes of love, compassion and mercy. Jesus is the only One who can judge righteously so let us leave that to Him and focus on the loving bit.

Following are a few Scripture verses that likely say it way better than I can.

1 Samuel 16:7 is where Samuel is going to anoint the next king of Israel. He is directed by the LORD to go to the house of Jesse with this one caveat, “the LORD said to Samuel, Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for God does not see as man sees, since man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.”

Luke 16:15; So He said to them, You are the ones who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is prized among men is detestable before God.

John 7:24; Stop judging by outward appearances and start judging justly.

Love that sees beyond the outer appearance to the person that desperately wants to be seen, that’s the kind of love I want to grow into. How about you?

Blessings to you on your own Journey of learning to ‘see’ and love as God does.

Baruch Adonai,

Brenda