“If you love Me, obey My commandments.” (John 14:15 NLT)
Obedience is rarely easy. I loved my mom’s chocolate cake. She used to bring one to me when she and my dad would visit when I was in college. But when I was a kid, after she baked one, she never told me: “Eat all you want!” Usually it was: “You can have a piece after dinner!” So, I waited.
What was my willingness to wait based upon? It wasn’t my love of chocolate cake; I would have stuffed myself the moment my mom left the room. It was my love and respect for my mom. We don’t obey the Lord because we don’t want to participate in or do whatever it is He’s told us not to do, we obey the Lord because we have love and respect for Him and His authority over our lives.
Corky Calhoun said: “Obedience is not a requirement of Christian commitment and discipleship, it’s the by-product of an undivided heart.” The 1st Commandment doesn’t call us to obedience, it calls us to love. Our desire and willingness to obey the Lord grows out of our desire to please Him above ourselves. If you think about it, that’s the pathway to overcoming sin’s stranglehold on us as His followers.
If we truly DO what we LOVE, we’re going to obey the Lord over sin EVERY TIME! But what if I’m an addict? At some point you’ll have to decide who you love more: yourself and God or your sin. Yes, of course, many times, depending on how long you’ve been addicted, it will take time to be “weaned” from your habit, but the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
At some point you’ll have to decide: “ENOUGH! I’m done!” and begin your journey to healing and wholeness in Jesus. There are times when He will deliver you immediately, miraculously, but most of the time you must wrestle with your healing process for months, even years. But what’s the key? Taking it one step at a time; one temptation at a time; one “Yes, Lord” at a time, until that wonderful day you’re able to cheerfully and wholeheartedly say: “Thank You, Lord, for delivering me!”
Freedom from sin is the result of obedience to the commands of God which results from an undivided heart. When your loyalties are divided, your heart and mind will be in a constant state of flux. Decisions will be hard, with uncertainty as to the outcome, because we’ll never quite know for sure whether we’re walking in obedience to the Lord or not. The question behind every question becomes: “Whose will am I truly seeking? Mine or His?”
Before we come to Christ and recognize Him as Savior, we want what we want, without regard to what God thinks. But once we yield our life to Him, we know, at least in our mind, that we should want what God wants, so, the battle of wills begins. Slowly the desires of our mind, what we know to be right, become the desires of our heart, to do what ONLY He wants.
It’s at that point we’ll begin to see victory on the horizon of our soul. In this season of my life ALL I want is what God wants for me. Nothing owns my heart except Him. Am I perfect? Only as He views me. Do I ever “miss” it, in terms of hearing His instructions perfectly? I do, but my heart is right. So, when it becomes clear to me that I’ve misunderstood what He’s instructed me to do, I make amends where necessary or I otherwise do what He tells me to do to make it right.
You and I won’t always get the outcome perfectly until we get to the other side, but in the meantime, we must allow Him to train our heart to hear His voice above all others and desire His will above our own.
Food for thought.
Blessings, Ed 😊
Walking With Jesus 