Obedience – what is it?

1 Samuel 15:22 (ESV)

²² And Samuel said, “Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams.

What does it mean to you to obey? I remember the vows that was recommended and used by the minister that performed our wedding thirty one years ago. He added the word “obey” to my wife’s vows. I think to the concept to obey brings to some an immediate response of fear and resentment. Maybe even an immediate response of rejection. In our postmodern society to obey is below us and as I mentioned earlier carries the immediate response of “I don’t have to.”

                 

What about when it comes to obeying God? It appears to me that a lot of people in today’s world struggle with this question. Either they are in total disobedience or they are trying so hard to find how to be obedient. Those in the first category may or may not admit they are in total disobedience but they are. This is extremely upsetting to the God Almighty. In Samuel’s case in 1 Samuel 15 he finds Saul in total disobedience to God yet doing what looked like service to God. Wow, now that is a complex situation. Total disobedience in service, church service, does this happen today? Oh I think so and probably more than we recognize or admit.

John Piper writes in his new book Think, “Jesus does not equate loving God with serving God. He roots serving God in loving God.” To love God is the first and greatest commandment. To love God should be the number one reason why we live. So if we are in service to God that means we are totally loving God, right? That is not necessarily true and not what I see in Scripture. I served God for fourteen years while all the time running (disobeying) a call from Him. Saul was much in the same situation. I firmly believe we can be going through the motions in serving God while at the same time be totally disconnected and disobeying Him.

So what is the answer? Jesus said “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” First logic is that if we are serving we are keeping His commandments, right? That is not what He said. Jesus said, “If you love me…” this is the answer. I think we need to have a regular heart check to validate that our service is first, motivated totally by love and second is what Jesus really wants us to be doing. I don’t know about you but I find myself assuming too much of the time and I don’t want to assume what Jesus wants in my service I want to know. As a dear brother of mine often says, “we need to have a come-to-Jesus session” quite regularly. Make your first purpose to love Him and don’t forget to love Him in your service.

Teach us to pray. (Luke 11:1-13)

Being a Christian in the twenty-first century has many challenges. The Christian walk today is vastly different in many ways than it was just a few generations ago. It seems that busyness is the number one distraction and it must make the top ten list of opponents to living a strong Christian life. Yet we have more going for us than ever before. We have more technology, more ways of obtaining truth and understanding, information is at your fingertips. Biblical knowledge and theological understanding is more prevalent today. We have a better understanding of what it takes to live an abundant life. However, with such knowledge and opportunity it is so easy to miss the basics or the foundation of the Christian walk. I think we can learn so much from the guys that Jesus started with if we slow down and look for the little things.

Prayer is so important in the Christian walk, yet it is so easily taken for granted. There are so many misconceptions about prayer and how to pray even with all the knowledge and biblical information we have available. Prayer is neglected, taken for granted, poorly done and tremendously misunderstood. Our privilege and opportunity to effectively communicate with the Creator God of the universe is amazing. Think of how blessed you are to stop and have an effective conversation with the Almighty God, your heavenly Father. Wow! When you think about it do you feel unqualified, unprepared and/or under prayed? I think most Christians do. I think most Christians do not pray like they want or feel a need to. I think most Christians aren’t confident in their prayers. The big question is how does this change?

I think there is an answer to that question and not only an answer but a good answer found in Scripture. In Luke 11 we find Luke’s version of what many call the “Lord’s Prayer” or what should be called the “Lord’s model prayer.” This prayer has been taught, preached, studied and many books written about it and all that is great. However, we may miss the important part of this passage. First we find Jesus praying. This tells me that if Jesus found or took time to pray that it must be extremely important. The Bible shows Jesus praying a lot. Secondly, not only do we find Jesus praying the disciples are either listening or watching Him pray. They have to be listening or watching Him pray because the act of Jesus praying brings a very important desire in the form of a request. “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.” (Luke 11:1–2 [ESV])

Could it be that the answer to why we don’t pray and/or why we don’t pray effectively is that we have never ask the Lord to teach us how to pray? The Word of God tells us that if we ask we will receive. (Matt. 7:7) Some years ago as I was reading in my quiet time with God, I found the Scripture in the later part of Luke’s Gospel where Jesus opened the minds of the disciples to His Word. I began to pray that God would do the same for me and He has answered that prayer. Now I pray often that the Holy Spirit will teach me to pray. The more I learn how to pray the more I understand that I don’t know how to pray as I should. I want more! I want Jesus to teach me how to pray. I want to understand the value, the method, the simplicity, the commitment, the depth of praying to my Abba Father. Maybe that needs to be your prayer today, Lord, teach us (me) to pray. He may just answer that prayer, I think He will.

The Need for True Humilty

⁸He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? Micah 6:8 (ESV)

Strife and anxiety in Christian lives today seem to be a result of a lot of unanswered questions. It is seen in those that have given up on church and living a mediocre spiritual life and those whom have a passion to grow in their Christian life and be all they can for their God. This strife and anxiety occurs at different levels in both extremes of these two categories of Christian people. However, they really aren’t categories the two types of people previously described are the two ends of a continuum that encompass all of God’s Children, the Redeemed, the Born Again.

So where does this strife and anxiety come from? Often for the Christian that has given up it comes from the conviction of the Holy Spirit and the truth that God has placed in their heart that they are not where they should be in the area of spirituality and their relationship with God. Through selfishness, of themselves or others, they focus on the hurts, disappointment and grief of past experiences and wrongly relate that to what it means to be a Christian. For the growing and hungry-for-more Christian it may be the realization that there is more and the desire to get there brings frustration, confusion and disappointment primarily in themselves. Are you on this line somewhere?

So what is the answer? What is the key to the resolution of this strife and anxiety? For years I have noticed the various ways understand and practice humility. The prophet Micah made walking the Christian life pretty clear, “to do justice (what is right), to love kindness (to practice the first and second commandment), and to walk (live, have a relationship) humbly with your God.” I think the words “walk humbly” (in humility) is a key here in this truth. Being humble and the practice of humility is so often misunderstood. It is interesting to me that the English word humility is directly parallel to only one word in both the Hebrew and the Greek. Often you have many words that relate when doing a word study. The Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary says humility is ‘The personal quality of being free from arrogance and pride and having an accurate estimate of one’s worth.”[1]

Max Lucado writes in his Everyday Blessings devotional[2] “True humility is not thinking lowly of yourself but thinking accurately of yourself. The humble heart does not say, “I can’t do anything.” But rather, “I can’t do everything. I know my part and am happy to do it.””

The Word of God says that “the man Moses was very humble, more than all men who were on the face of the earth.” Numbers 12:3 (NKJV), now that is a model for humility. In my Christian walk I have made my humility a spiritual discipline, keeping my mind focused in what I think the area of humility is. I have also seen this same discipline practiced to a point of when a person is in the church area their faces are so contrite and burdened they look like they have just lost everything. This is a incorrect way of practicing humility and while on the other end of the spectrum there are people who seem to have no humility, it is all about them. So where do you fit on this continuum?

So maybe your prayer today is to be, “Lord Jesus, teach me the truth in the application of my walk today how to be humble before you and before those I encounter today. Show me how to walk humbly with and before You.

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^[1] Chad Brand, Charles Draper, Archie England et al., Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary, 792 (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2003).

[2] Max Lucado, Everyday Blessings, 312 (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2004).

But God...

Life is not easy and the Christian life is no different.Alone we are sitting ducks to sin and Satan. However, there is a clause all theway through the Bible that changes everything. Allow the following text to encourage you today and in the days that seem so unbearable.

Gen. 20:3        Abraham was about to loose Sarah to Abimelech because he lied But God…

Gen. 31:7        Laban was taking advantage of Jacob and manipulating him But God…

Gen 45:8         Joseph’s brothers intended to get rid of him But God…

Ex. 13:18        Pharaoh and his army were about to annihilate the Jewsat the edge of theRed Sea But God…

Jdg. 15:19       After killing 1000 Philistines with a jawbone of adonkey Sampson was to the point of death by thirst But God…

2 Ch 20:15      King Jehoshaphat was in a battle that he couldn’t win and defeat was in his face But God…

Ps. 73:26         King David came to realize that his flesh and heart fails him But God…

Php 2:27         Paul was about to loose his friend Epaphroditus to sickness and death But God…

Acts 13:30      Satan thought he had Jesus defeated and in the grave But God…

Rom 5:8          You were once totally domed by your own sin destined to a place called hell But God…

I Cor 10:13     All temptation is common to all of God’s people and it seems there is no way out But God…

It may seem difficult, silly, or even hopeless and it probably is without Jesus But God… changes everything.

Lord Jesus, help me to trust you and you alone in everypart of my life today and forever, all to your glory. Amen!