Obedience School

Do What Is Good
3 Once we, too, were foolish and disobedient. We were misled and became slaves to many lusts and pleasures. Our lives were full of evil and envy, and we hated each other.
4 But—"When God our Savior revealed his kindness and love,5 he saved us, not because of the righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy.
"8 This is a trustworthy saying, and I want you to insist on these teachings so that all who trust in God will devote themselves to doing good. These teachings are good and beneficial for everyone.
Titus 3:3-5, 8 (NLT)

My son just turned four and in another year or so he will head off to begin his long journey of professional education, but his education actually started the moment he took his first breath. He had to learn how to interpret the things his eyes saw and the sound of his dad’s voice. He had to learn how to crawl, walk, and all the other motor skills needed to get around in this great big world. Once those were mastered he then needed to learn the fine art of obedience. He had to learn that there are certain things that are important to daddy that he shouldn’t chew on (like dad’s New England Patriots commemorative Super Bowl ball) and if he didn’t do as I asked of him there would be repercussions.

When we are spiritually reborn we have to go through this same process. We have to look at things through the new Kingdom eyes that God has given us. We have to learn how to make our way in the world while not being “of” the world. This will take new “motor” skills to learn how to navigate towards that which Christ leads us and away from that which will lead us into darkness. We also need to learn how to listen to our new Daddy when He speaks to us and discern what is important to Him.

In order to do this we must enroll ourselves in Obedience School. We need to make sure our prerequisites have been met (we accept Jesus as Lord & Savior), our application fee has been paid (by the blood of Christ), and we show up on time each and every day for class. Once we are in class we will learn how to do our research in the 66 wonderful textbooks that God has given us (The Bible). As we progress in OBEDIENT101 and search the Word of God for guidance we will discover the necessity of trusting Him and waiting for His direction as well as learning commitment and dependence on His Word. But in order to be successful in this class as we go forward we will need to do the following:

Listen Attentively
Our Father does not speak in an audible voice. He makes Himself known through the still, small voice of the Holy Spirit. In John 14 Jesus says that the Spirit is our helper and He will remind us of His words when we need it most. The key here is that it is up to us to dig into the word of God so that the Spirit can lead us and show us how to apply that which we have read about.

Obey the Next Step
Just like Abraham left his home and went into the great unknown (Genesis 12) at the call of the Lord, we too must be obedient even when we don’t understand or can’t see the final destination. We must learn how to step out in faith even though all the details are not known to us.

Expect Conflict
“I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world."
Jesus in John 16:33

We cannot live a life of obedience without expecting some conflict along the way. Sometimes it may come from a friend or family member drifting away from us after we come to the Lord. Other times it may be from criticism that is being thrown our way because of our beliefs. We may lose a friend or have to leave a job because of our beliefs. It is to be expected.....just remember that Jesus is with you through the whole thing!

Charles Stanley closes his devotional on obedience by saying that practicing a lifestyle of obedience doesn’t mean we’ll never make mistakes (I can vouch for this firsthand). He goes on to say that this walk of faith being displayed in obedience does require diligence though. Obeying the Father was the top priority of Jesus and we should make it ours as well.

Next week we will look further at this thing called faith and how it is clearly shown in our trusting the Lord in all circumstances.

Have a great week and God bless!