Sep 12, 2021
Obedience demonstrates our faith and trust in God; Obedience is the key to our success; Obedience is the sure and promised way for unlocking blessings for our lives. For us to be able to fully obey, we must read His word every day and ask God to empower us with His holy spirit so that our life is going to honour Him.
1 Samuel 15:21-23
21 But the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the chief of the things which should have been utterly destroyed, to sacrifice unto the Lord thy God in Gilgal.
22 And Samuel said, Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.
23 For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, he hath also rejected thee from being king.
In the early Church times, people wanted someone to follow. One of the great leaders was the Apostle Paul, who experienced an amazing transformation as he went from an angry murderer to a passionate follower of Jesus. People saw his passion and wanted what he had. They wanted someone to follow and Paul knew they would, so he said to them, “Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ” (1 Cor. 11:1).Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ.
Paul wanted them to know that he was also a follower and that if they truly wanted to follow him then they would have to know that he got his strength from being a follower first. Paul understood that Jesus was the reason for his changed life because he had tasted forgiveness, grace and a fresh start through Jesus’ death and resurrection on the cross.
What about you? Are you a good follower? Our world is obsessed with leadership. Go to any bookstore and you will find hundreds of books on being a better leader. How many books do you think you’d find that would help you be a better follower? I’m willing to bet very few, if any. As Christians, Jesus has called us to be His disciples (followers) and to trust in Him. As you grow in discipleship by being a follower of Jesus, know that you will also be a leader to those around you.
Jesus' call to follow him is more than an invitation to pray a prayer. It is a summons to lose your life and find new life and ultimate joy in him. ... When people truly engage with Jesus' personal invitation to follow him, everything changes, for he is worthy of all our trust and affections.
Obedience to God proves our love for Him (1 John 5:2-3), demonstrates our faithfulness to Him (1 John 2:3-6), glorifies Him in the world (1 Peter 2:12), and opens avenues of blessing for us (John 13:17).
Faith is necessary to please God (Hebrews 11:6), and if our faith is genuine and true, we will live a lifestyle characterized by righteousness, modeling the example set for us by Jesus Christ. We obey His commands, not because we have to, but because we want to, because we love Him. We are enabled to obey because, once we believe in Christ and are saved, we are remade. We are not the same people we once were. As Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 5:17, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!”
When we obey the Lord, we can live a life of joy, without shame, rooted deeply in the Lord and confident in our eternal hope. “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom” (2 Corinthians 3:17). Our obedience is actually part of our assurance that we truly know God (1 John 2:3).