Obedience

Adapted from Living for Jesus Beyond the Spiritual High
We all want to be ourselves. We do what we want, when we want. Well, no one is going to tell us what to do because we don’t want them to. We want to be in control.
You know what? Obedience is an essential part Christianity. Sort of like a foundation to a house. If you don’t build a strong foundation, the whole house will crumble and fall. Obedience is so important because we must submit and humble ourselves before Christ.

“Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me” John 14:21
Basically he says, “Hey! Here’s what I have in store for you and here are my commands. If you truly, truly love me, then you would follow my commands.” Well, we are not here to be legalistic. Which is, be all nit picky about things. But we should be following God’s commands because we love Him.

What does it look like, though? It means that you are letting God take the driving wheel. You seek to be holy and pleasing to God through the empowerment of the Holy Spirit.

Whatever it may be, reflect upon how to be holy and pleasing to the Lord.
“Obey your leaders and submit to their authority. They keep watch over you as men who must give an account” Hebrews 13:17

This gives us an idea of who we are to obey. Let me list a few if you are completely clueless. People like your parents, teachers, your boss, the Po-Po, and God of course. But this doesn’t mean follow blindly. The ONLY time you shouldn’t obey somebody is IF they directly contradict God’s Word. Got it? (And also, contrary to popular belief, your parent’s telling you to do your homework does NOT contradict God’s Word.)
More importantly, we can learn from Christ’s obedience. For Jesus, obedience was laying down his life.
“Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who being in the very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but he made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death – even death on a cross!” Philippians 2:5-8
As you see, obedience is very crucial. Some people say that once you accept Jesus into your life, you can just go on and do whatever you want. NO! That is just the beginning. You need to start living a transformed life!
“What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? … Faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead… You see that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone” James 2:14, 17, 24

Start living out holy lives that are pleasing to God. Hey now, I know that we can’t be holy. But even though we are unholy, if the Holy Spirit dwells in us then we have His holiness living in us. Whether you believe it or not, when you choose to follow God’s Word or your parents, you show little pieces of His holiness in you. Cool, eh?
“It’s good to obey God because He tells us to, but it’s even better to obey Him because of who He is and because you love Him!” – Greg Speck

Friday: Pray for the Church (Big C)
Pray for God’s Guidance in the furthering the development of the universal Church