Today’s guest post is written by Charmaine Huey who writes at The Road Back. Her bio is at the bottom of the post. Enjoy her words of wisdom and be challenged, dear Ones. If you would like to be considered as a guest writer at Trailing After God, please visit the Be A Guest tab.
Those who obey his commands live in Him, and He in them. 1 John 3:24
Obedience is something that we as Christians have to face most likely every day. Yes we have worldly authorities that we need to obey and respect but to what avail or what degree? Many times in the workplace our company may ask us to do something that we know is contrary to our beliefs and we wrestle between the voice of the world and the voice of God. It’s a push and pull exercise for us that we don’t enjoy by any means and could have adverse affects in our lives depending on who we listen to. As I checked into the definition for obedience I found the following:
Obedience-behavior intended to please your parents.
Every child wants to please their parents because they love them and trust them and hopefully their parents love God and trust Him and are obedient to Him because He is their heavenly Father whom they love and trust.
Below is another definition for obedience:
Obedience-The willingness to follow the will of others.
How many times have we said to ourselves AND others, “I really want to know God’s will for my life” or, “I want to do the will of God.” Wouldn’t doing the will of God be what this definition says> “I am willing to follow the will of my Heavenly Father.” Abraham was told by God if he took his family to the land that He would show him (the far country He would “make him into a great nation and would bless him and make His name great (Gen 12) among other things. Wow that’s much more than .50 for dusting the house for our parents when we were young but we learned that if we obeyed our parents we may get a blessing (money!!) I can just imagine Abraham telling Sarai the following. “God told me that he would make a me great nation and bless me and make my name great. All we have to do is pack up and go. “Where to?” Sarai may have said. He may have hesitated here and said, “Uh, I’m not sure where but God said He will show us.” A note in the NIV says: it was the promptness of Abraham’s obedience that fulfilled God’s words to him. Just like Abraham it seems that our degree of obedience will be determined by the degree of our faith. How do we increase the degree of our faith? We increase it by loving and trusting God and by the examples of our ancestors. Look at Abraham and Moses.How about Mary, the mother of Jesus, who said my very favorite words of all in the Bible, “may it be unto me according to thy Word” (Luke 1:38) and in turn her son Jesus obeyed His heavenly Father to His death and resurrection on the cross for our salvation.
I sometimes wonder if Mary ever said to Jesus, “I’m so glad I obeyed God or Joseph and I might not have had a son such as you in our lives. Can you just imagine how many lives have been touched into eternity because of Mary’s obedience? It gives me goosebumps thinking about it. Can you agree? By the obedience of all of those spoken of here plus so many more God had instruments of obedience (and faith) to fulfill and accomplish His will. Like many of us they may not have seen the fruit of their obedience until sometime in the future, many times far in the future; however, without such obedience how many souls would live eternally?
How many thought they were crazy? This is why we have to be cautious about putting what others think of us before obeying what we know to be from God whether it is asked of us in the Word of God or conveyed to us by the Holy Spirit. You might say that your faith is not strong enough to step out into what God is asking of you. I have hindered the growth of my faith at times when I allowed fear to conquer faith by being disobedient or delaying obedience and I got stuck. Thank God that his mercies are new every morning and don’t be surprised or scared when He asks you to be his instrument of obedience again. He loves us that much.
I could go on and on about obedience and I may pick this up again in the future, but I think this is a good stopping place for us to look at obedience in our own life-not to condemn ourselves but to marvel at His love that He also trusts and loves us enough to ask of us and use us. It reminds me of that song that says, “If you can use anything Lord, you can use me.” No matter what God asks us to be obedient in it will always be for our good- whether temporal or eternal-and the good of others and for His purpose and glorification.
“Lord, I know the times I have made excuses to you and have not obeyed or have delayed my obedience and I also remember the aching in my soul because I knew it was you asking and I didn’t obey or I delayed. On this day I’m asking you for a greater measure of faith to obey without question or excuse so I might be an instrument of obedience to further your kingdom and your will-your purpose for me. In Jesus’ name I ask. Amen
Charmaine blogs at: The Road Back
Bio:

Love talking about obedience. It’s so key! The guest speaker at church said, “slow obedience is no obedience.” Been chewing on that all week.
Oh that’s a good one!