Currently I am reading 1 Samuel and as I was reading this morning, 1 Samuel 15:22 stood out to me, it reads "and Samuel said, Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey, is better then sacrifice: and to hearken then the fat of rams." This stood out to me because I think it made it pretty clear what the Lord really wanted from us then, and still does now, it is our obedience. He wants us to show our love for Him by keeping His commands(John 14:15), by doing the things He ask of us and following His plan for our life. By being obedient to the Lord's voice, and to His laws we are showing our love for Him and worshipping Him by our actions. Obedience is important to the Lord, because when we are obedient to His Word we can overcome this wicked world and escape death, it is because of His love for us that He desires we obey.
The word 'obedience' is something that we hate to hear, this is something we desire in others but hate to actually do. We want our children, our pets, (sometimes even our spouses) our students, or our employees to listen to us and follow the rules we set in place. We want the environment to be safe and happy for all, so we make rules. We want them to show us respect by doing as we ask, we want to know they care by showing us this respect, but we as a society hate to follow the rules. This is something that I am still having trouble with at times, learning obedience can be hard in a culture that teaches you to always question authority. We love and celebrate rebellion and nonconformity, we encourage it really, and while I will agree it is not always a good thing to go with the crowd, that there are some laws that I think shouldn't exist, I understand there are reasons behind the laws, reasons that they are in place, and mostly it's for our protection. This is certainly the case with God's laws, each one of them is meant to spare us from death, because sin is a death sentence, but His laws and surrender to Him lead to eternal life.
Now having said all that and explained that it is an act of love and worship to be obedient to the Lord, I must remind you to not let that discourage you. The Lord knows it is impossible for us to be obedient to Him all the time, He knows it is part of the fallen man to rebel, He has seen us do it over and over again throughout the history of time. This is why Yeshua paid for our sins. This is why the Holy Spirit now resides in the heart of God's children. Through the blood of the Messiah we have been justified to God, cleaned and redeemed; and with the Holy Spirit we have a force helping and guiding us on the path of righteousness, an inner voice, a witness that lovingly leads us to obey. Be blessed and obedient my brothers and sisters in Christ.
Psalm 19:9
The fear of the LORD is pure, enduring forever. The decrees of the LORD are firm, and all of them are righteous.
Psalm 119:138
The statutes you have laid down are righteous; they are fully trustworthy.
Psalms 119:144
Your statutes are always righteous; give me understanding that I may live.
John 14:15-21
15 “If you love me, keep my commands. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— 17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. 18 I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. 19 Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. 20 On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. 21 Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.”
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