Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ
Yesterday I put an article up entitled, The Price of Disobedience”. In it I spoke of how God had shown me how I had been walking in disobedience in my life. He also showed me that there were consequences to my disobedience that not only affected me but others as well.
This morning as we were reading through our family devotions, God once again opened both mine and my son’s ears to the fact that he prizes obedience over everything else.
We were reading through the book Called,
Praying the Names of God, A Daily Guide, by Author, Ann Spangler.
Each reading always starts off with a verse or two from the bible, today’s reading was:
Genesis 22:15-18.
15The angel of the LORD called to Abraham from heaven a second time
16and said, “I swear by myself, declares the LORD, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son,
17I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies,
18and through your offspring£ all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me.”
You see, God blessed Abraham greatly because of his obedience to him; he was undoubtedly one of the most successful people in the bible. All because he took God at his word, did not doubt him and then he obeyed what God had asked him to do.
Yes God had asked him to sacrifice his son, but because of the kind of relationship that Abraham already had with God, he knew that God would provide the needed sacrifice when it came time. So he set out in faith, believing that if God asked him to do it, then there had to be a good reason, as well as that would supply all that was needed for the sacrifice. He also reasoned that God could and would raise Isaac from the dead if that was necessary.
God, honored this obedience to his will, and he blest Abraham, with wealth and children and land and a good name amongst the people.
Please remember something, that the step of obedience that God asked Abraham to make was not the first contact he ever had with Abraham, they had a history together of God showing Abraham that he could be trusted and that when he said something it would be fulfilled.
God does that with us as well, he reveals himself to us all of the time, sometimes in ways that we totally understand and then other times in more subtle ways. The reason he does that is to build our trust in him, for us to see that he truly does have our best interest at heart and when we step out in faith it will be for our good and for the good of others as well.
Abraham’s key to success was absolute obedience to the will of God and for that God blest him beyond his wildest imagination. Please understand that God is not a sugar daddy or Santa clause that will give you something if you perform correctly. No.
For God it is all about the relationship that he has with you, he knows and sees your heart and the motives behind everything. God promises to bless us when we step out in obedience with him and walk in his will. He has shown us in the bible numerous examples of how he has blest people because of their obedience to his will. History is filled with people who sought to walk in humble obedience to God and through their obedience their lives were blest.
God gives us a deep joy when you are walking in his will for your life; he gives us his peace as a trade mark in your life. Through him we have the ability to encourage and affect someone else’s life for the good. He opens up our eyes to the wonders prayers being answered and a rich and deep intimate relationship with God our father.
You see, God promises that if we will diligently seek him, all of the other things that we need in our lives will be given to us by him.
So, if you feel like you are on the outside looking in today, and you are hungry for the blessings that God wants to bestow on you, ask him for the grace to obey even the smallest instruction that he gives to you. With each step of obedience he will lead you to larger ones and before long you will be in the habit of obedience. This will lead to a deepening of your faith.
God loves us so much and he has so much that he wants to reveal to each of us. He also wants to reveal himself to the world around us, through us. Take a step of obedient faith today, and courageously ask God to help you deepen your obedience to him. You will not be disappointed and God will indeed bless you because you obeyed.