Obey: September 9, 2010

Today's Word for Thursday September 9, 2010

OBEY

DEFINITION

To comply with the wishes; instruction or commands; to follow; to respond readily; to submit or conform to; to be obedient.

SCRIPTURE

"Be doers of the Word and not hearers only." James 1:22

"If you obey my commandments you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed My Father's commandments and remain in His love." John 14:9

"But if anyone obeys His Word, God's love is truly made complete." I John 2:5-6

"What does the Lord require of you, but to do justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God?" Micah 6:8

"This is love that we walk according to His commandments." II John 1:6

KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE

Obedience is the result of love and loyalty and they cannot be separated. Obedience to God is a demonstration of our love for Him. Obedience is doing what Christ has commanded us to do and living as He wants us to live. Jesus set the example for us. He was obedient to His father and obeyed His commands. By experience we know that obedience brings reward and disobedience has consequences.

We read in Numbers 20:7-12 that Moses struck the rock to get water rather then to just speak to the rock as God commanded him to do. Moses did not obey God and therefore forfeited his privilege of entering the promised land with the children of Israel, whom he had led for years. Think how painful it must have been for Moses after leading the Israelites out of Egypt and all through the wilderness for forty years and then not to be able to enter the promised land with them.

Obedience to God enables God to use ordinary people to do extra ordinary things. The disciples obeyed when Jesus said: "Follow me and I will make you fishers of men." Mark 1:17. Because of their obedience the disciples were used by God to spread the gospel message and to begin the church. They were given the power to perform miracles. They healed many and cast out evil spirits.

Trusting and obeying the Lord brings to one's life true happiness. The noted author Philip Yancey wrote: "Obedience to God and only obedience offers the way out of futility." The way of obedience is the way of blessing. We must learn to obey. In order to obey God we must know what God wants us to obey. We must read His Word so we know His commandments and then go to the Lord in prayer and ask Him for the strength and willingness to obey Him.

Have you noticed that children never need to be taught to disobey? Disobedience is a result of our sinful nature and each one of us -- parents, teenagers, adults and children -- need to learn to obey.

We learned as we were raising our children that the best way to teach obedience was to first set clearly the standards. Then when these standards were not honored and when we had given fair reminders, we would take away something that the child really wanted as a punishment for not obeying. The punishment had to have significance in the child's mind, so it had to be painful. We also learned that it did not help to yell or threaten; this only built up resentment and never gave good results. When giving out punishment for not obeying it is very important to be consistent as well.

LEARNING

Our memory verse for this week is found in John 1:46.

And Nathaniel said to him, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" Philip said to him, "Come and see."

PRAYER

Help me this day to obey Your Word. Help me to study Your Word so that I may do a better job of obeying Your commands. Bless my family and give me a spirit of love and loyalty that only comes when I am honest to You and to them.