saltandlight

Obedient children make a peaceful home, don’t they? When the kids do what you ask when you ask, it just makes everything go smoother. We don’t have to keep asking. We don’t have to get angry and start yelling. We don’t have to punish. But, life rarely works that way. Children are going to be disobedient from time to time. Hopefully as they get older and have been disciplined, they become more obedient.

As I write this, I am actually thinking of myself and my obedience to the Lord. Sometimes I find it hard to obey God. (I know, shocking, right?) Sometimes I know what His word says and I just think deep down well….. Maybe that wasn’t a really important rule. Maybe I can fudge on that a little. No. Absolutely not. As I pray and study God’s Word, over time I get chastised and become more obedient!

I’ve come to realize that when I am obedient, things go much better for me. I don’t struggle quite as much. I get unexpected blessings. Isn’t that what we do when our children are obedient? We reward them in some way. If we are loving parents, we want our children to grow up learning to be respectful. So, we teach them to respect us and other adults. We punish them when they do wrong. We give them some type of reward or positive affirmation when they do good. God created us this way. And He teaches us in His word to be this way.

Recently I have become more obedient in an area of my life. And God has really blessed because of this. I can see Him working things out for my good and it is in direct correlation to my obedience. Maybe you can think of an area in your life that you should be more obedient to God. Trust me, there’s always more work to do in all of our lives. It’s because we aren’t perfect and we live in a sin sick world.

I can give you example after example of times where my disobedience led to discipline and when I got it right and became more obedient to God’s word, then I could see Him working things out for me! It’s really amazing when you think about it. But that’s God. He is amazing! His grace and His mercy overflow.

We find in the Word so many times that people disobeyed God and suffered the consequences. And then we can see when people obeyed God, they were blessed. There is one example probably hits us Mamas the hardest – when God told Abraham to sacrifice his son, Isaac. (Genesis 22). Abraham obeyed God. He took Isaac up to Moriah and prepared him for a burnt offering. Can you imagine how hard that must be? I don’t know where Abraham’s wife was, but I can imagine her reaction if Abraham had come back without Isaac! This Mama bear would not have reacted well! LOL (You want to see me act up, just mess with my children!) Anyways, Abraham had faith that God knew what He was doing. And just as he was about to complete the sacrifice, and angel of the Lord spoke to him and told him not to go through with it. And a ram caught in the bushes was sacrificed instead. I’m condensing and paraphrasing, so read the whole chapter for yourself. It’s a great story! And when the angel spoke again he told Abraham that he would be blessed and that his seed would be multiplied.

This is just one example in God’s word of obedience bringing forth blessings. It seems like the hardest things for us to obey God in, the things that takes us out of our comfort zones, are the things that will bring forth the most blessings. Sometimes we have to obey God even when it doesn’t make sense. Remember Noah?

So, pray about where you need to become more obedient. Pray about the steps that you need to take to walk in that obedience. It may take just one step at a time! But obeying God’s word and what He is leading you to do, will bring so much peace and blessing. He will provide for you, just as He provided the ram. He does all of this for us. It’s all for our own good. That’s how much He loves us.

Father I just want to thank you right now for Your Word, Your provision and Your Blessings! You provide instruction and then You bless us when we follow Your instruction. Your grace and mercy abound! I pray that you will guide and direct us in following your Word. Pour your Holy Spirit out upon us so much so that we have no choice but to obey You! We praise you! In your Holy name, Amen.