Why Do You Obey God?
Do you obey God because you were taught to, because you are afraid of not obeying Him, or because of how you were raised?
What do you do when life takes unexpected turns and things do not turn out as you thought?
Are you willing to be misunderstood by others who only see what you do but do not see who you really are?
Are you truly content to follow a course of action that you know God is orchestrating even though onlookers may call you crazy?
In his book, "The Seven Longings of the Human Heart" Mike Bickle writes, "A life characterized by affection-based obedience is a life in which a person knows that he or she is so loved by God, and so loves God in return, that obedience is the only reasonable response to anything God wishes."
It is one thing to say that you love God and want what He wants in your life when obedience is easy. But when following His plan proves costly to you or to others, it is necessary that you are living out of an obedience that is not driven by fear, or habit or even proper upbringing. When obedience is costly, it must be pure, unabashed love for God that motivates, for it is that and that alone which will carry you through the fallout of following Him.
This question haunts me and I long to be able to say that every day of my life I will not just follow obediently, but that I will dance down His path for me with a heart so full of fascinated love that I see no other way but His.
How would you answer this question?
Why do you obey God?
4 comments:
I think obedience is worship in its truest sense. It is borne out of the understanding that God is all wisdom and power and holiness. And because of all this, He is worthy of all praise and honor. I think obedience is wrapped up in that.
That is really good, Rachel. I miss you, by the way.
I read this post this morning and it has taken all day for me to whittle down an answer to something shorter than a novel, so here goes...
For me the answer of why I obey God is a two-parter. First I obey God simply because that is the logical thing to do. I cannot grasp the depth of God, nor can I fully understand the mind of God, but I can certainly understand the logic that my inability to understand is a part of Him being God. If I understood it all, then I would be on the same level and He would no longer be God. So if logically he is God then He has the power over everything. And if the one with the power has made promises to care for me (which He has shown true every time) then why wouldn't I cling to His Word and obey it?
Secondly, I obey God because it is the natural emotional response. Jesus offered the greatest sacrifice anyone could give for me. He died on the promise of the CHANCE that I would run to Him. I always had the choice to reject that sacrifice, yet he made it. We would want some sort of promise or at least an acknowledgement of intent before offering such a thing. I mean, c'mon, we live in the "age of pre-nups". Yet Jesus gave the biggest "nose-thumbing" (I like that term, it's my comment post, I'm using it) in history at the pre-nup mindset. Why would I not devote myself to such a lover?
These two reasons are about as concise as I can get, and they're not perfectly developed, but good enough for this venue. Some days I stand firm on one and some days the other, but most days I find myself with a mish-mash of the two. Thankfully, at the end of the day my lover honors and accepts my shortcomings in expressing my devotion and lavishes His love on me still.
Wow, I really like that Matt..."and at the end of the day He lavishes His love on me still." How can you not love a God like that? Great response.
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