What do you desire?

Be Still . . .
Devotionals for Daily Living ^©

If they obey and serve him,
they will spend the rest of their days in prosperity
and their years in contentment.
(Job 36:11 (NIV))

Obedience!

To those who have not been saved by grace, obedience sounds like mindless adherence to the will of someone else. It sounds like you give up your individuality and free will when you are expected to obey and serve.

If we could make people understand that if God wanted people to be mindless and simply do everything that He commands, then He would not have given us free will. He would have simply made us to be servants. He has the ability to create anything that He desires. He could have simply made us robots. We would respond to His every desire without thinking about what we do. We would simply do it because we would have been created to serve. To those who have not accepted His grace, it appears that this is the biggest oxymoron of all times. They use this argument to bolster their misguided reasoning that since we have free will, we don’t need to obey. They even misuse this and reason that I was created this way, therefore whatever I do is ok.

Have you ever loved someone so much that you found yourself doing things for them that you normally would never do under any circumstances? You find yourself wanting to serve their needs because you care for them. You find yourself wanting to “obey” their desires because it gives you joy to please them.

How do you think it makes God feel when someone obeys Him out of the very same type of heartfelt desire to please? How do you think it rewards the obedient one? There is a joy present in this obedience. It resonates through the very soul of the person who longs to please God. Perhaps that is the best way to differentiate between the two views of obedience. The unsaved world sees obedience as a form of subjugation and dreaded servanthood. Those who know grace through the atoning blood of Jesus know obedience as the greatest joy and peace that can be obtained.

And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
(Philippians 4:7 (NIV))

God blesses those who desire to obey out of a desire to please Him. What do you desire?

Copyright 1998 – 2011 Dennis J. Smock
Daily Living Ministries, Inc.
http://www.dailylivingministries.org
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