Obeying God's Voice

 "For I earnestly exhorted your fathers in the day I brought them up out of the land of Egypt, until this day, rising early and exhorting, saying, "Obey My voice." Yet they did not obey or incline their ear, but everyone followed the dictates of his evil heart; therefore I will bring upon them all the words of this covenant, which I commanded them to do, but which they have not done." Jeremiah 11:7-8

"But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him." I John 2:5

"If you love Me, keep My commandments." John 14:15

Obedience. I think just that word, obedience, elicits some strong emotions in most people. The emotion we feel might depend upon the time of day, or day of the week that we hear it, am I right? If you hear obedience when your parents are saying 'no' to your weekend plans, you might feel a little resentment. How about hearing this in your wedding vows, wives obey your husbands? Does that maybe make you feel defensive? I think most of us, sitting in the pew Sunday morning, hear obedience and either we have a feeling of hope - this is my goal to obey God! Right? Or we might feel uncomfortable, because we're in God's house but maybe we have been less than obedient to His word? 

The Bible talks about obedience in the Old and New Testaments. This is not one of those OT items that was washed away by the Blood of Jesus. We need to be obedient to God, not just for His sake, but for our sake! We have to obey, not just because it's the right thing to do, but because in doing so we will strengthen our relationship with our Heavenly Father. 

Think about a time in your life when you were struggling with the path to take. Did you seek out the wisdom and guidance of someone wiser than yourself? I have another question... Did you heed the wise advice that you received? Some of us might be uncomfortable with our honest answer to that one. If the guidance we receive contradicts the desires of our hearts, we will struggle immensely to follow it. However, when we are obedient to that guidance, we typically will find ourselves in a better position than we would have been had we followed our hearts instead. 

What if you took the situation to God, on your knees, in prayer? Then, my friends, you were most definitely seeking higher wisdom than your own! It can be difficult to discern God's answers to our prayers though, because it is not likely we will step outside and be confronted by a burning bush with His booming voice saying, "Niki, this is exactly what you should do..." True story, God has never spoken to me through a burning bush. How about you? God has spoken to me through the words in His Bible, in the morning breeze, in a friend's loving text, in a hug from a loved one. God speaks to all of us, every day. It can be really hard to obey what He is saying if we cannot hear His guidance. 

So how do we obey God if we're struggling to hear Him? It starts by quieting our minds. We need to battle all those racing thoughts. In II Corinthians 10:5 Paul tells us to bring "every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ." I find that it is powerful to use Bible verses to pray. As we claim the promises of God's word against the evils that are in our way, God will show up in big ways. And the devil will flee, when we are obedient to our Father (James 4:7). Step one: pray your busy mind into quiet obedience. 

What is step two? Sincerity. I find we will not be successful in many parts of our walk with Jesus unless we have a sincere desire to obey God's will - no matter what God's will might be. Ask yourself what is your sincere desire about obedience to God? Is it that you want to try to trick God into believing you are obedient just so He will bless you in the particular way your heart desires? If that's the case, my dear friends, please reexamine your motives. We do not serve a big, blue genie in a lamp, He does not exist to simply grant our wishes. 

As we learn to obediently study, and follow God's Word, we will come to find a natural progression of faith. As we come to see that time after time after time God not only delivered but also abundantly blessed His people - when they obeyed Him, and they did so with a joy-filled heart. God has already gifted us the most precious, amazing Gift ever: His Son in our place on the cross. We should be filled with such hope, joy, humility, gratitude, and praise that we want to obey God. Let us spend time thinking about this daily...before we know it, we will be begging God for His will alone to be done in our lives. 

We are not perfect, so, even when we reach the point of our faith where we know God's will is always going to be better than our own, we will stumble. But grace!! Repent. Thank God for His grace and mercy. And get back on the obedient path. He won't let you down.