How do you Follow?
Good morning,
This past weekend I was on a flight to visit a friend and during the flight, I was reading a book geared to helping Christians become more spiritually healthy. As I was reading, one of the sentences made me pose a question to myself, silently (I didn’t want the passenger next to me, hearing me have a conversation with myself). Anyhoo..the question I asked myself was do I follow God out of compliance or out of love? Do I do certain things because I want to be obedient or do I do them because I love God (trust him) and know that it is the right thing to do. I am still pondering this question, as I think about some of my past and recent actions. How do you respond when God asks you do something or just when the day(s) require unwanted requests from you? Do you willingly commit to the task (out of love) or out of compliance. Do you act with an “unselfish loyal and benevolent behavior” or out of a need to “comply with a demand or recommendation.” Did you notice the difference between the two?
If not, let me help you
Have you ever noticed, how sometimes children will do what you ask willingly (minus the attitude) because they love you, the way you love them? Then there is their alter ego, that is just being obedient to your request with a ton of attitude-rude. I don’t know about you, but it frustrates me, when I ask my child to do something and either they sort of complete the task, or the task is completed with comments under their breath and rolled eyes. I wonder how God feels, when we treat Him this way?
Perhaps many of us will not be honest, but sometimes we are just like children; we grumble and roll our eyes when asked to do something, we do it at our own pace (God told us to do it 6 months ago), or we do some of the job with the nerve, to consider a half-done job is better than nothing. A reminder for all of us, you may have been obedient but obedience without love is still a disposition of irreverence (disrespect). Being obedient when you feel like it (and not when God said move) is irreverence. Being obedient with complaints or with an attitude that the Lord owes you a “Thank you” is irreverence. Being obedient, to boast about being obedient instead of because you love God, isn’t true love for God but a form of worshipping yourself.
So I ask again, do you follow God merely out of obedience as if you are a robot? Or do you follow Him because your heart desires to please, trust, and follow Him (even when it doesn’t make sense, or might take too long, or even when it benefits everyone else but you)? Obedience is great but LOVE IS GREATER!
Luke 22:41-44 (NLT) He walked away, about a stone’s throw, and knelt down and prayed, “Father, if you are willing, please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.” Then an angel from heaven appeared and strengthened him. He prayed more fervently, and he was in such agony of spirit that his sweat fell to the ground like great drops of blood.
Source for definitions: Love: Merriam-Webster.com and Obedience Merriam-Webster.com