March-April, 2016
When I was a boy, I loved it when my mother would bring home sweets after work. One day she brought cookies for my sisters and me. As always, the condition was not to eat the cookies before dinner. Well, I disobeyed. My mother found out, so she called me and sat down with me.
She asked me if I have eaten some of the cookies, the ones she had said not to eat. Trembling, I said “Yes, I did.”
To disobey my mother was always a bad decision. I knew the punishment, and I thought it was surely coming. She took out the belt.
In my mind I was searching for ideas of how I could get away from the belt. So the first thing that came into my mind I said to my mother, “Mom, before you spank me, let us pray first.”
I said this to her because in my mind I was hoping that if we prayed first, then she might have a change of heart and wouldn’t spank me.
We both knelt down and my mother prayed: “Dear Lord Jesus, you know that my son hasn’t been obedient lately. I ask you to give me the help I need to educate him in the right path, in Your path. Please give me the strength and wisdom to spank my son not so hard but not so soft either; just enough to make him understand that he needs to obey. Amen.”
With tears in my eyes I said: “Amen!”
Instead of our prayer allowing me to escape, it led me to say “Amen” to my own punishment. I had to accept it now.
God tells us: “It shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe and to do all his commandments which I command thee this day, that the Lord thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth: And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shall hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God. Blessed shalt thou be in the city, and blessed shalt thou be in the field. . . . But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command thee this day; that all these curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee: Curse shalt thou be in the city, and cursed shalt thou be in the field” (Deuteronomy 28:1–3, 15, 16).
Obedience to God and disobedience to God each reflect the type of lifestyle we have chosen. If we have sincerely committed our lives to God, then we are going to obey Him; we are going to trust Him and leave all the consequences to Him.
In times of disobedience, we lean on our own desires for direction. We vacillate back and forth between what we want to do and what we know is right.
“Christ came to this world to give them a living example of what they all must be, and parents who claim to believe the truth for this time are to teach their children to love God and to obey His law. This is the greatest and most important work that fathers and mothers can do. . . . It is God’s design that even the children and youth shall understand intelligently what God requires, that they may distinguish between righteousness and sin, between obedience and disobedience.”1
God never intended for us to be harassed by the experience of making decisions each day. Sometimes when we pray, we immediately discern the will of God. Other times, we must wait, trusting Him to show us when and how to move forward. Still at other times, He spends a great deal of time preparing us to step forward through an open door. But when the opportunity comes, God does not want us to hesitate with feelings of worry and doubt. “For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord” (James 1:6, 7).
Then there are situations that result from a relaxed attitude about purity and holiness. I cannot begin to count the number of times I have asked a person why he or she allowed sin to gain such a stronghold in his or her life.
One man confessed that he had been around a certain type of sin most of his life. He did not realize its influence upon him until he realized that he did not have the joy and peace that he believed a Christian should experience. He had moments of happiness but nothing that lasted. He noticed that every time he tried to pray, his mind filled with images that were sinful and wrong. The enemy knows when we have withheld our obedience to God. Like a well-trained warrior, he moves in for the attack, but often his approach is not a full frontal assault. It is subtle and hidden, like a landmine just below the surface.
The mistake we make is in assuming that we can ignore God’s commandment to obey Him and not suffer harm. The bottom line is that there is never a time when it is OK to disobey God. We should obey Him regardless of what we think, or how we feel. It is a matter of choice, but one that many Christians do not yet understand or submit to. Far too often, people evaluate their circumstances according to what they perceive will profit them: “How will this help me get ahead?” or “Will this move be beneficial to my future?” We say we believe God is all-wise and knows what is best for us, but often we end up looking for advice from people around us and not from the only One who knows everything we need to know. We need to consider only one issue: “Is this God’s will for my life?”
Disobedience is not always wrapped in a dangerous or sinful-looking package. Yet it is sinful to disobey God because it hurts the heart of Someone who loves each one of us and has a plan for our lives. It damages our fellowship with Him and leads to feelings of guilt and shame.
Disobedience is not only choosing to do wrong; it is also failing to do right. We disobey God when we refuse to do what He has gifted, trained, and called us to do. Our refusal to be open to His plan can bring misery and regret. On our own, we do not have significant insight into the future. All we can do is make choices based on what may or may not take place. When all is said and done, only one Person has absolute knowledge, and that is the Lord. And He has promised to provide the guidance we need. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight. Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and turn away from evil. It will be healing to your body and refreshment to your bones” (Proverbs 3:5–8, NASB).
We can worry, fret, and fume about an issue that God has already resolved in a way that we do not like. But if we trust Him, we will obey Him each and every time. Being obedient does not mean that we will never face difficult decisions. It means that when we do, we will resolve that He has gone before us; and because we have committed our lives to Him, the way we travel will be straight, sure, and manageable. The prophet Isaiah reassured us: “The Lord will continually guide you, and satisfy your desire in scorched places, and give strength to your bones; and you will be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water whose waters do not fail” (Isaiah 58:11, NASB).
You and I learn obedience. We are not born with the desire to obey God or anyone in authority. It is a learning process. When you were born, you grew to a certain age, and then you began to test how far you could go before your dad or mom gave you a warning. At first, you may have listened when your parents said no, and you stopped what you were doing. But there quickly came a point—probably even before your first birthday—when you decided that ignoring the word no was not a big deal.
But ignoring your parent’s expression of the word “no” became a big deal when you continued to ignore the warning and received a rebuke. I cannot remember when I started testing the strength and certainty of my parents’ authority. But I recall doing it many times after I was old enough to remember my own behavior.
If we do not like authority, then we are going to rebel against it. Often children grow up naturally rebelling because their parents do not teach them to obey. If there is a spirit of obedience ruling our life, then we are going to willingly and lovingly choose to be obedient. There are certain rules that we have to obey.
“Shall we not teach our children that willing obedience to the will of God proves whether those claiming to be Christians are Christian indeed? The Lord means every word He says. Christ died that the transgressor of the law of God might be brought back to His loyalty, that He might keep the commandments of God, and His law as the apple of His eye, and live. God cannot take rebels into His kingdom; therefore He makes obedience to His requirements a special requirement. Parents should diligently teach their children what saith the Lord.”2
From time to time, I find it necessary to evaluate what my behavior tells me about myself. How can I categorize my life? How would you categorize your life? Am I committed to obeying the Lord only when it is obvious that obedience to Him is best for me? Do I think to myself, “I just have this feeling inside every time someone tells me what to do. A wave comes over me, and I can sense this feeling building within that makes me want to say, ‘I know what I’m doing, and I know what is best’?”
Or am I willing to do whatever God asks of me, because He asked me, even when it does not make sense? Am I willing to trust God to be right all the time, instead of only when what He says is convenient?
Some of you as readers may think, “You do not know what I have to go through if I am going to obey!” Someone reading this may think, “My mother or my father was so demanding that I just want to say no to authority no matter what is involved.” These are harsh statements, but I have heard ones like them and more.
The truth is: if you do not come to a conclusion of faith and obedience—it takes both—then your life is going to be outlined by defeat, failure, disappointment, suffering, and one wrong decision after another. You must believe in the One whom God has sent to you.
What an awesome way to live the rest of our life—in the shadow of our heavenly Father’s constant care, in the light of His truth and eternal glory!