Obedience for Life!
Speaking of Christians living in obedience to God Derek Prince wrote, “I have come to see that in the Christian life there are no shortcuts and no detours.”
Obedience is a core characteristic of our Christian life, let us look at that today.
John 15:9-17
If we live in obedience to God we see that: -
v10 we will live in Christ’s love as He lived in the Father’s love.
v11 our joy will be full.
v14 we will be friends with Jesus and God.
v15 God will share His knowledge with us.
v16 We will bear fruit (Galatians 5:22,23, fruit of the Spirit).
v16 Whatever we ask God the Father will give us.
v17 We will love each other.
This is not an exhaustive list and I will mention some other points but this is what Jesus highlighted to the disciples just before He was arrested and went to the cross.
God has given us a free will and this fact is very important. We decide and choose the actions we take. God wants us to choose Him but will not force us, that would not be loving. He is so determined that we make our own minds up that He even punished His own Son instead of us and then lets us choose how we respond.
Deuteronomy 11:26-28, conversely if we do not choose to obey God we will suffer, but look, if we do obey God He will add on His blessings. It is only right that we obey God and yet He wants to add on blessings as well. In fact, real joy, peace and fulfilment are only found in this life as we live in obedience to God. This how we “reign in life”, Romans 5:17. And the more we trust and obey God the more He sees He can trust us and blesses us more. What a joy in obeying God. Hallelujah!
It is like a marriage where the more one partner loves and serve the other, the more the second partner responds out of love and wants to serve and bless the first. The marriage keeps maturing and growing in love and getting better and better. And of course, marriage is an example God has given us of the relationship and intimacy He wants with each one of us, Ephesians 5:31,32.
Even our Lord Jesus when He gave up His place in heaven and came to live amongst us chose to obey God the Father and He spoke of this several times, John 5:30. This pleased God the Father who wanted everyone to know and at one time spoke out in a loud voice that he was “well pleased” with Jesus, 1 Peter 2:17,18.
God was very happy with Jesus, like a proud Daddy, and do you know that when we obey God He is very pleased with us too. Yes! Very pleased!
It is good and important to please God and we have it in scripture; Romans 8:8, Hebrews 11:5,6 and 13:20,21. When you know you have pleased God you feel great.
So obey God, the Holy Spirit in you will help you, and God will respect and honour you and bless you abundantly, He loves you so much.
Questions
Thank God for all He has done to bring you salvation and give you a place in His Kingdom.
What areas in your life are not lived in obedience to God? Talk to God about that. Ask the Holy Spirit to help you.
Who can you serve and bless this week that you don’t normally? See how they respond.
Tell your work colleagues that you obey God and then explain why and the benefits. Practice with other believers first, have fun! (Many people think that Christians are boring and the Christian life is just sacrifice.)
Prayers
a Pray for Uganda and the local elections. May God mercifully guide all that goes on. May leaders seek to lead with justice and mercy.
b Pray for the church in Uganda. God loves His church so much, it is His instrument of blessing to this nation. May it be obedient to Him and not lead astray.
c The Black Lives Matter campaign has been great in many ways crossing boundaries and uniting people of different nations. Pray that it will not be taken over by those with partisan political views.
