I don’t know about you, but i have a hard time obeying someone just for the sake of obeying. I have to be able to think a thing through and find the reason for something. I don’t like to blindly obey; that requires alot of trust.
As you can imagine…as a child…that was not the best approach. 🙂 My mother always told me…i had to learn things the HARD WAY. Too funny…she was absolutely right. I do, sometimes, have to learn the hard way for it to sink in.
As a parent; i know the value of obeying. When my children were little, it terrified me crossing streets and things like that as my children are somewhat hardheaded. Obeying me was in their best interest; I knew that…but they did not understand it that way.
(My mother, at great times of stress, wished for me…”TEN CHILDREN JUST LIKE YOU!” hahah She probably regrets saying that now….as she has many grandchildren just like me).
Amazing since they aren’t biological…i just think it is because God has a wonderful sense of humor. 🙂
Anyway, to the point; Obedience, why should i obey? Well, it is true…it is “FOR YOUR OWN GOOD”. I always hating hearing that growing up. I never liked that either…i thought they just didn’t want me to have any fun. Parents tell you things and limit your access to things; because, they understand more about hidden dangers because of their life experience.
God is the same way. He sees things we don’t, he understands things we have no knowledge of. He sees the big picture when all we often have to work with, is a couple of little, tiny puzzle pieces. When it is all put together the correct way…the picture is lovely. When you do it wrong..nothing makes sense and nothing works the way it should.
There was a wonderful lesson today on obedience in our home. An email came from some internet marketer friends of my husband. While he was out in California, last week to a conference, it came to the marketer’s attention that one of them got devastating news about his father. He just found out that his father had lukemia. It was shocking.
The marketer is a Christian; his father was not. My husband and several other Christian marketers joined together with this young man and prayed for his father and their whole family. They prayed also that the father would accept Christ as his savior.
Before this prayer…my husband watched several people go up to the young man and tell him sympathetically that they would be praying for him. After about the sixth person; my husband interrupted.
He said, all thoughout these conferences we are taught that to be successful we must take action. So why is it…that you all know that this family needs prayer and you all say you will pray for him and your intentions are good; yet, you dont stop and pray with him in the moment? How much more effective will the prayer be if we all join in together and pray, right here, right now?
They did; they prayed for the young man, his father and his whole family. Over the weekend we got news that the father was given a tract through the Billy Graham ministry. The father told his son that he had given his life to the Lord; and, that the tract told him so many things that he already knew but wasn’t living. Praise God, he obeyed the Lord and accepted Christ as his savior.
Understand this, he was diagnosed just less than 2 weeks ago. Today we got word that the father passed away yesterday. I believe he is in heaven because he obeyed; the marketers were obedient as well.
Thank God those marketers were obedient to the nudging of their conscience and prayed for them. Thank God the father obeyed the instruction of the tract to give his life to Christ.
Obedience….what for….? Obedience is for our own good even when we don’t understand. That is especially important when we don’t know have all the information. It could be a life or death situation that has not yet, been revealed to you.
***** If you know you should be obeying…then just do it. Of course, you must also keep in mind that if you choose to obey it should be someone who you trust and respect. Remember there are people in life who don’t operate with good intent. Your instincts are God given, to protect you; so develop your skills of discernment. Learn to pick up on body language, tone of voice, human interactions…those are your guides. ***********
I know i have to work on this as well. Life is a journey of learning and as long as we have breath we had better be listening and learning.
Write where you are 
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