John 14:15,21,23 “If you love me, you will obey my command… Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him… If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him, He who does not love me will not obey my teaching.”
Jesus preached on obedience (three mentions alone in John 14 above), and modeled the life of obedience: “Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered, and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him” (Hebrews 5v8-9).
So we know we’re meant to obey, but will we? If we don’t, Tozer gives us a strong warning: “Whenever you hear God’s truth, God’s Word, you will go either in the direction you are moved, or you will just wait. If you wait, you will find that the next time you hear the truth, it will not move you quite as much. The next time, it will move you less, and the time will come when that truth will not move you at all!”
Is there a block in my spiritual life? I want God to show Himself to me, but He seems really distant – could that be because of some disobedience? Dorothy Kerin wrote: “Obedience is the key that unlocks the door to every profound spiritual experience.” Oswald Chambers said: “We learn more by five minutes’ obedience than by ten years’ study.”
Have you been in a situation, or is there one coming up soon, where you will tone down and compromise your integrity and God’s standards because of peer pressure and the longing for acceptance and approval? Remember Peter before the Sanhedrin as he declared: “We must obey God rather than men” (Acts 5v29).
Lord God, help me live a life of obedience to you for your glory. Amen!
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