Obedience Is Active!
by Harold Vaughan
Scripture Reading -- 1 Samuel 15:22
"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."
Obedience is doing all God tells me to do with the right heart attitude.
Do you know that little chorus?
"Obedience is the very best way to show that you believe."
The truth is that obedience isn't the very best way; it's the only way to show that we believe! The call to obey is a call to action. How often do we look for a feeling before we act? We don't need to wait for an emotional prompting before we do what God has commanded us to do.
Obedience is when we activate our will and act on the things we should. Many Christians look for a feeling or experience, but God is looking for obedience. There's more to obedience than knowing and believing the truth; it is doing. One of the greatest mistakes we can make is thinking that because we know about a certain thing, we assume we have the experience of it. Understanding is one thing, but implementation is another.
Someone surveyed the high school students from five leading industrialized countries. The Americans thought they were the best students in the world; the Japanese thought they were the worst. When surveyors tabulated the results, they discovered that American students, who thought they were the best students, actually scored the worst. Furthermore, the Japanese, who thought they were the worst students, actually scored the best!
The Laodiceans said they were rich and increased with goods, in need of nothing. But God's evaluation was somewhat different! He said they were poor, blind, miserable, and naked.
Thinking we're a certain way doesn't mean we are that way. Thinking we're obedient in our heads doesn't guarantee we're obedient in real life. There's more to obedience than thinking. Obedience involves action. Obedience is doing. Obedience is doing all God tells me to do.
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