Here's some definitions from Webster's Dictionary:
Obedient
1. complying with or submissive to authority.
Obey
1. to comply with the commands of, 2. to comply with; to obey orders. 3. to submit or conform to.
Submit
1. to give over or yield to the power or authority of another. 2. to yield oneself to the power or authority of another.
What does this mean to you?
I am sometimes so “proud” of myself for being obedient to God….hmmm. In reality I need to have a clearer understanding of this…so let’s look at it together.
Imagine I own a rowboat on a river…. Now, I want to go downstream because it is with the flow of the current, it is easier to row, and there is a nice village down there. It so happens, my boss wants me to run some stuff in my boat to the same village. Since I plan to go there and there is room enough for his stuff too, I consider this for just a moment. So I say, in obedience, I will do just that.
Am I really obedient, or is it more to the fact it is convenient to my own personal plans?
It doesn’t require much effort on my part to then obey.
Now, consider my boss instead wants me to row upstream with his stuff to a few villages…If I do so, immediately, completely and without grumbling….is that a better model of obedience?
My point, I guess is to really learn obedience is to do those things we know God wants us to do even when (especially when) our flesh, the world, and/or our temptations say/desire otherwise. We need to do it immediately, without grumbling and to completion.
In a book I recently read, the author stated this point….To delay in obeying is still disobedience. To not fully complete the task is disobedience. To obey but grumble and gripe is still disobedience…..WOW, I’ve been DIS-obedient more often than I want to admit to myself and you.
I really want to learn obedience…if it’s convenient, without discomfort, and requires little or no effort/energy. That is NOT what God wants to teach me. With obedience comes pain, suffering, discomfort, sorrow, and a more intimate relationship with God!
Read your Bible…This is what is found every time someone is obedient…even obedient to death on a cross.
On the other side….Disobedience also comes at a great cost, and without God’s favor…just eat the apple….ignore the covenant…turn from the Lord your God…run from God and look what happens. You lose your property rights to the best garden on earth… your enemies defeat you… you don’t get into the Promised Land… and get swallowed by a whale…etc.
Sure, this is a simplified and shallow study of obedience…I just want to get some dialogue going on real-life examples, stories, and thoughts from YOU on what being obedient is to YOU!
6 comments:
hmm...okay, i see your point but it has the scent of asceticism around it.
Jonah, after being spit up by the fish, eventually witnessed to Nineveh and though he was disobedient before and angry afterwards (certainly not the willful obedience written about in the blog), God never slammed him for it. The tone I read in the Lord's response is more, "get your head out of your butt and see that I've saved a city."
"…if it’s convenient, without discomfort, and requires little or no effort/energy. That is NOT what God wants to teach me. With obedience comes pain, suffering, discomfort, sorrow, and a more intimate relationship with God!"
Wow. You're just using hyperbole there right? God won't ALWAYS call us to do the difficult thing. Think of a man in a relationship with a woman he loves. He wants to marry her and so he asks God if this is the right woman for her. Through prayer and guidance he comes to believe that this is the woman God has for her and they live happily ever after. Now obeying God in marrying her was probably did not come with "pain, suffering, discomfort, sorrow" but it's still what God wanted and probably still led to "a more intimate relationship with God."
In my mind, obedience is obedience whether willful, joyful or not. God loves a cheerful giver but we're supposed to tithe anyway.
To me obedience is not so much a decision, but a heart condition. Are we totally submitted to God's will? So many times I have done things thinking that I was doing what God had told me to do, in obedience... but yet find myself complaining, and upset because I don't see the results I wanted or expected...
Obedience is also tied with being submitted, until we are totally submitted; can we be obedient? When I ask non-christians, what their idea of submission is, they say: domineering, because they need to..., or simply forceful.
But yet submission is to be in love. Jesus is the perfect example of true submission, as you read in the Gospels, did he want to die on the cross? NO! But did he do it? YES! Because of His unconditional love for us... John 3:16,17
In a personal opinion, We cannot be totally obedient, until we are totally submitted!
Good stuff Lone Tomato and Anonymous (RW)!
Yes LT, there is a bit of hyperbole...I can do that, writer's perogative/license....LOL.
Your point is well taken/recieved. Sure, not every act of obedience will lead to "tough/bad" stuff. But my focus is not on so much our petitions to God for the things we want to choose in our lives...it's more toward those times when we are asked by God, His Word, His Commandments to die to our flesh, pick up our crosses, to forsake the desires of this world, to surrender to God, to shed our sinful desires as dirty clothes, to live as holy sacrifices, to love our enemies, etc.
We will never lose freewill so obedience will always be a decision. IT IS a more automatic, easier, simple decision when the condition of our heart is set toward God, mirrors that of Christ.
It is those Gesthemene moments when we desire for this cup of suffering to pass us by, but we say, "Lord, your will be done, not mine."
The more we all move toward biblical obedience if is willful, joyful and complete.
If someone orders me to paint a fence, how it turns out, how long it takes, how everyone hears either complaints, grumblings or joyful rejoicing will be a "check" on how I understand and practice obedience.
When the condition of my heart is set on the rock of Christ this obedience falls within perfect submission to God.
I'm sure this submission (rather the ease to which I submit) is also closely tied to just how much I fear God--my level of faith, trust, and commitment. Ohhh, that sounds like a possible new blog entry....
What do you think of all this?
Obedience is better than sacrifice. A theme that runs through God's Word.
I think we can err on both sides. We can obey only when it is something we want to do anyway and rebel, fuss and complain the rest of the time. We can also get caught up in the martyr complex of sacrifice.
I have found that God has this amazing ability to change my desires. The more I grow in Him, the more my desires line up with His.
God knows the very desires of our hearts and seeks to fulfill them. I look at Jesus's Gethsemene moment. He didn't want the pain/shame/etc. of what He was about to do, but He did the result would fill one of the desires of His heart.
I am learning that I don't trust God as much as I would like to think I do. That is a tough thing for me to acknowledge, let alone write down. And God and I are working on it. But in the midst of this realization, I see how many things in life are related to my trust God.
Do I really believe that He wants what is best for me? Enough to do things I don't understand?
Do I really believe His promises are true? Enough to jump around on them, claiming them as I try to "Do What Jesus Did"?
Do I trust Him to talk to me and guide me? And so on.
When I am trusting God, it is not difficult to obey. Whether He allows me to rest and go downstream for awhile, or challenges me to go upstream, it will be good. It is when I am leaning on my own understanding or doubting God that I rebel, wine and complain.
Just a side note: Remember the story about the 2 brothers that Jesus told? One of them said that they would do what the father asked and then went away without doing it. The second said he would not do and then went away and did it. I think our obedience trumps disobedience even when we are wining.
Those are my thoughts!
I think we really don't know the answer to that until we get there. We can speculate all we want about how noble we ought to act or will act. But when the cards are dealt is when we will know.
I had a friend who had a wife and kids and a great church support team, but because of mounting financial debt, he decided to take his life.
Another friend developed a physical problem and rather than 'burden' his church family with it decided to die instead. We had some fun times and I miss both of them.
just recently saw 'million dollar baby' a movie about a paralyzed boxer.
--then I look at people like joni ericson tada and I see the Gods power in action. when i am weak he is strong.
So true there Coorslt....obedience is only discovered under testing.
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