Tag: God’s Word

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.

A Bad Day? Really?

Lately I’ve been challenged by the verse in Rom 12:2 which says, And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

This morning I’m looking outside, and I thought this is a good day; it’s cloudy and cold and the weather network is predicting a rain/snow mixture by noon today.

So what makes this a good day? The birds are feeding at the feeder, flitting about the woods and their bird houses. I get to go out to spend time with a bunch of lovely ladies to study God’s Word. I have groceries to stop and pick up afterwards, then come home to my two sweet (my daughter calls them weirdos) little chihuahua pups who love me totally and unconditionally.

Not everyone would call this a good day. People who suffer with barometric headaches, or other debilitating physical issues, people with chronic pain, perhaps they just broke an arm or leg and are in terrible pain. Perhaps someone lost a loved one through death or the death of their marriage in divorce. There are all manner of ways people are suffering the world over. Terrible suffering, I have no idea about.

They would say they are having a bad day. As a child of God, I want to challenge that thought.

In Gen 1:4-5:  it says, And God saw the light, that [it was] good: and God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.

First off, in God there is no evil, no shiftiness, no ‘bad’ness, so I don’t believe He can create something bad.

If you look down to verse 31, it says, And God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, [it was] very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

So the challenge is to align our thoughts with the bible, God’s Word. This is just one small area, trust me there are so many more ways in which we conform to the world! But in this one instance, how about we start to think that our circumstances are bad or are a challenge, are painful physically or emotionally difficult rather than naming the whole day ‘bad’. I believe we speak against God’s Word by declaring ‘this is a bad day when God Himself declared it to be very good.

I know it can sound like I’m splitting hairs, or being very simplistic and that there may be more important things to consider how we are conforming to this world, but I point this out as just one small way to not conform to the world.

One last bible verse to consider is [2Co 10:5b, and [we are] taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.

After all Christ has done for me, this is one small way I can align myself with Him and His word, to be obedient.

Bless you as you face the challenges of not conforming to this world. We are each on our own journey, I just share one small piece of my own journey.