OBEDIENCE OR CELEBRATION: CHOOSE ONE
posted by Osax at 10:18:39 08.02.2013One of the reasons why it is difficult for many to get sold out on God, is because deep inside our male psyche is a desire to be celebrated as one of our esteemed celebrities. Years ago I had this question rise in my heart as I stayed in fellowship with the Lord during one of those times of “heart-to-heart” discussions. “Would you rather obey Me or be celebrated”. My answer was “I thought obedience will lead to being celebrated”. The answer came back to me,” Obedience will not necessarily lead to celebration, you will need to choose. If you choose obedience, you will leave your celebration in My hands”.
Obedience to God needs to be with the right motive. The right motive should be love. Love for God, that is. It should also be with the right focus-Christ should be the focus. Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, denied the shame and is set on the right hand of the Father. He is our inspiration in obedience. It was sufficient to just obey God and please Him by our obedience. Remember that Eve was told that the fruit will make her wise. God simply said not to eat, eating will lead to death. God’s character was questioned; obedience became a hard thing as motives and focus were polluted as Satan suggested that God had other ulterior motives in mind. You will not be celebrated if you walk in obedience? Is that not a well established line of thinking from our un-renewed minds? We need to present our bodies a living sacrifice, not allow ourselves to be conformed to this world’s system of thinking, and then we can renew our minds so we can prove the will of God in our lives. An un-renewed mind is a sure tool in Satan’s line of allies.
Whenever we add other considerations, we can get easily distracted in our obedience to God. Think about everything we can obey God about and find out the trace of pride or selfishness that wars against our simple obedience. We should make up our minds to obey God because we love Him and we want to do it for His glory not ours. God is not against our being celebrated but if it becomes our focus or purpose, we shall be easily distracted from God’s will for our lives. It is true sometimes obedience has a tendency to make us look foolish in the eyes of the world, it is only temporary, and on the long run we shall find that obedience is our best bet in life. The way of the rebellious is hard. What seems right to men usually lead to destruction.
Obedience to God needs to be with the right motive. The right motive should be love. Love for God, that is. It should also be with the right focus-Christ should be the focus. Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, denied the shame and is set on the right hand of the Father. He is our inspiration in obedience. It was sufficient to just obey God and please Him by our obedience. Remember that Eve was told that the fruit will make her wise. God simply said not to eat, eating will lead to death. God’s character was questioned; obedience became a hard thing as motives and focus were polluted as Satan suggested that God had other ulterior motives in mind. You will not be celebrated if you walk in obedience? Is that not a well established line of thinking from our un-renewed minds? We need to present our bodies a living sacrifice, not allow ourselves to be conformed to this world’s system of thinking, and then we can renew our minds so we can prove the will of God in our lives. An un-renewed mind is a sure tool in Satan’s line of allies.
Whenever we add other considerations, we can get easily distracted in our obedience to God. Think about everything we can obey God about and find out the trace of pride or selfishness that wars against our simple obedience. We should make up our minds to obey God because we love Him and we want to do it for His glory not ours. God is not against our being celebrated but if it becomes our focus or purpose, we shall be easily distracted from God’s will for our lives. It is true sometimes obedience has a tendency to make us look foolish in the eyes of the world, it is only temporary, and on the long run we shall find that obedience is our best bet in life. The way of the rebellious is hard. What seems right to men usually lead to destruction.
