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

The Journey Continues

I started this post a year ago, but finished it today, February 15, 2024.

February 2023.

I have just recently finished writing my first novel and while it’s exciting, that was just the beginning of this particular journey.

I always have written. I love writing, but what I felt inside, was that I had a book to write, but I had no idea what to write about.

I remembered how many of my poems had been inspired by God. A quick idea, words that rhymed, a scene in a movie and the whole thing unfolded from there. So I began praying for an idea for writing a novel. I remember telling God that if He had a book for me to write, to please give me an idea because I didn’t have a clue what to write about.

I have no recollection of what inspired my idea apart from God, but one day I just knew what to write about. I finally had an idea, and so I began writing.

It began almost 4 years ago, (5 as I finish this post today) but as with everyone, life got in the way and I had to set it aside for a while. I had several chapters written and figured I’d continue as time allowed, but I never considered what a mental and emotional toll everything that came along would put on me.

As my mom was no longer able to live alone, I built an addition for her to come live with me I sorted through, repurposed, threw out, gave away and packed up her apartment by myself. It took about 2 months of time and left very little time and/or energy for creative writing. Add to all that, Covid-19 just reared it’s ugly head so the isolation and distancing added new weight to everything that was done.

The building process took a lot of planning. You may not understand the amount of planning, permits to apply for, adjust, re-submit, just driving from one office to another, wrong place, go back and try again! It’s the sort of stuff that drives a person a bit bonkers, especially if you’ve never done it before!

Finding a builder was a challenge. While there are many around, there are few who are honorable and capable of grasping my vision and the immediacy of the project. I did find one, quite by chance (or God) and the recommendation turned out to be a wonderful association between builder and crew and Mom and me. We almost felt sad to see them finish and leave. Finally, I packed the remaining of her belongings into a storage space for the day the room was built, put a bed in the livingroom and moved Mom in. It was a bit chaotic, but finally all the pieces fell together, the room was finished and we moved Mom into her new room.

Unfortunately, just 5 months after moving into the room, she passed away.

So, here I go again. Sort through, throw out, give some stuff away and clean out her room.

It is a very beautiful room and so I repainted it in my colour and moved my bedroom down. It’s large enough that I could add my desk and chair for writing and so I picked up my laptop “pen” and found the pages of my story and began again.

However, I hit a blank spot, writers block they call it. I didn’t know where to go from where I stopped. I couldn’t find the thread that connected the chapters to move on. I figured I’d put it away for a while and so I packed up all the printed pages, saved all my writing and let it be.

In the summer of 2022, while visiting my brother-in-law and his wife, I whined a bit about not knowing what to do the coming Fall and Winter, and Evelyn simply said, “keep writing”. That was all it took to get me going again.

Inspiration from God. What would I have done without knowing help was a prayer away? I finished the book, titled it Grace in a Town Divided, and contacted a publishing house. The process of editing and printing was almost finished.

February 15, 2024

I remember thinking of all the ways I would have to pursue to market the book. I bought copies for friends who requested one and knew that the book would be published elsewhere including Amazon. By the way, I was completely gobsmacked when I saw the book I wrote and published, with my name on the cover, listed on Amazon. It was a bit surreal! Who am I kidding…..it was awesome!

However, I hit one brick wall after another trying to market it locally. I remember during the writing process how I didn’t want pride to get in the way. I even prayed that if only one person read it and accepted Christ as Saviour, that would be reward enough. I wanted this to be a project to honour God in getting the gospel ‘out there’ in story form. But getting it ‘out there’ wasn’t happening and I was frustrated thinking I did all that hard work for nothing. While praying one time, I distinctly heard in my thoughts, ‘you wrote it, I will market it’. I believed in my heart that God was going to be in control of getting this book out to whomever He pleased, wherever they were. I mean, isn’t that what the Christian life is all about? Pleasing God and giving Him control over our lives?

So, I took my hands off the book. I let it go. I have no idea where it will sell or to whom, but I believe God will get it into the hands of those He chooses.

In truth, I confess there are times when I resent spending so much time and money on something I may never see the fruit of. But did I do this for the money, or for the praise of man, or did I do it for the praise and glory of God?

Even though I may never see the results during my earthly life, one day I will know just how far God took it. One day I will see those in heaven who are there as the result of reading the book God inspired and put in their hands. And I will celebrate that.

Definitely a Girl on a Journey of doing my part, and letting God do His.

The Sovereignty of God

Thursday, February 15, 2024

I’m re-reading The Sovereignty of God by A. Pink. *Sigh, I really ought to read it at the beginning of every new year to see God afresh.

Today I read how everything is governed by God, the weather, our health, our vacations, you can name your own thing. He says when we complain about the weather, or anything else, we are complaining against God. Whoa, that is so not good! I thought of Proverbs 16:9 where it says “man makes his plans but God directs his steps”, so when the weather, our health, etc., stops us from going where/doing what we planned to do, that is God directing our steps for that day.

If the car breaks down, that is God directing our steps. If, which has happened to me many times, I made plans, even just going to work, God interrupted with a car accident redirecting my steps or stopping them altogether. I confess, I didn’t understand, thus I got angry and complained.

But in Romans 8:28 it says that “God causes ALL things to work together for good to them who love Him and are called according to His will.” To say we wish it were not so is to say, in essence, we wish He would not cause this to work for our good. It’s to say we know better. It is our pride and selfishness that says we want our own way. We are not humbly giving “thanks in all things”, 1 Thess. 5: 16-18, humbly acknowledging that God knows better than we do and has a plan for us, we are complaining against Him, our Sovereign God for thwarting our plans. We are not humbling ourselves, instead we are pridefully pitting ourselves against God. Not that it does any good!

I think it is especially grievous that we as Christians too often find ourselves angry, frustrated or ticked off when we don’t get our own way, not seeing it as the hand of God and thanking Him for interrupting our man-made plans. I think it takes great maturity in Christ and an enduring trust in the goodness of God, to get to the point where no matter what happens, we do not grumble and complain, but humbly give thanks for ‘it’ because our trust is in the God who will cause this thing to work together for our good.

Today everyone is focussed on creating an attitude of gratefulness. Let’s just try one day at a time, today, to be thankful in all things that happen, knowing God’s got this.

Journey Girl, taking one day, one step at a time.