At one time we too were … disobedient …
Summary: Obedience is hard for humans. It requires us to submit to God’s authority and we tend not to like doing that. Yet God’s rules are not all that hard to comply with, if only we would.
Are you obedient?
If you are like me, that question, “Are you obedient?” opens up a whole series of questions in my mind.
- Who are you talking about?
- What are the rules?
- Who am I supposed to obey?
- What am I being asked to do?
- What if I do it, but I don’t do it well enough?
- What if I take too much time doing it?
- How will I know when I am finished?
There are more questions, but you get the idea.
The thing I like about God’s rules is that they are simple and situationally appropriate. By that, I mean that they are well within the ability of a person to comply with if they are willing to try. God is not asking us to do something that all that hard.
In Genesis 2:15-17, God places Adam in the Garden of Eden and basically says he can have the run of the whole place. Just one little thing; there is one tree you must not touch… Obedience would be simple. Avoid one tree. How hard can that be?
Later in Leviticus, God gives Moses a set of instructions. Moses is to build a portable tabernacle, and the priests are to follow certain rules. I love how the tabernacle is designed. In some ways, it is very simple. The priests are to do certain things at certain times. Nothing very complicated. The people are to obey a simple set of rules God has for them. God provides them with everything else that they need. All they have to do is to obey.
Even now, in the Age of the Gentile, the “rules” we are to follow are very minimalistic and very simple: Love God above all else and your neighbor as yourself. (Matthew 22: 37-40) The actual “rules” handed down by the Jerusalem Council were even less demanding. In Acts 15: 22-35, we read the letter they wrote to the early church. In it they write:
“You are to abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality. You will do well to avoid these things.” (Acts 15: 29)
God’s rules are not all that hard to comply with. What bites is the fact that we have to “obey.” Even when it is something simple, there is a part of us that resents authority. Thank God we have a Savior in Jesus Christ.
Application: Think about what following God’s rules means to you.
Food for Thought: How do we overcome our instinct to disobey?
The seemingly simple rules are so often the hardest to follow. I appreciate the word here this morning!
Thank you, Ben!
I appreciate you checking in!
Thank you for the excellent devotion. I agree with Ben that just because something is simple, does not make it easy.
I think love for God is the best motivator for obedience. John 14: 15, 21, 23.
I believe the word here would be,..”Surrender”,..if I give Him my life,..He will give me His,..and the life He gives me only comes through His One and only Son Jesus,..and then Jesus passed us on to The Holy Spirit,..but it really is all about surrender,..
That’s my take on the question for today,..
If I surrender and follow Him in faith,..He leads me, guides me, counsels me, loves me, provides for me and well the list goes on from here as well,..
Whoever thought that surrendering to authority would be sooo easy and yet feel sooo very good,..
How do we overcome our instinct to disobey?
Actually, we don’t, we must allow God to complete the work he has begun.
The moment we repent our sins and humbly accept Jesus Christ as our one and only Savior, we are forgiven of all our sins and receive eternal life. At that very moment, for a split second ( for some a millisecond ), by the power of God, we become perfect sinless, eternal beings acceptable to God. We then begin the process of battling our flesh, all the desires of our past life for control of our physical life on earth.
We have fully acknowledged our powerless state when it came to our salvation, and immediately decided we could take on Satan by ourselves as we began the battle of living in obedience to our Lord. Our PRIDE has quickly returned and the sooner we give this to God, begin living our new life 100% dependent on Christ for all things, the sooner we will find ourselves happily living in obedience to Gods Will in all things.
Rather than giving us an unending rule book to try and follow, Jesus fulfilled the Law which is impossible for us to keep. He is sinless, completely righteous. Because He is able to accomplish what we cannot, we are able to live life to the fullest only as we believe and follow Him. Jesus tells us those who love Him obey His commands and we are to take His yoke upon us. His power is at work in believers as we seek to follow Him by faith. The Holy Spirit will transform our hearts and minds , renewing and helping us to live a new life in obedience to Him. Our minds are made new as we read the Bible which is God’s Word for His people and the primary way in which He speaks to all.
John 10:10, John 14:15, Matthew 11: 28-30