Obedience to an unseen God can be unnerving. It’s even more so when the obedience is blind: not knowing beforehand why we are being asked to carry through a most difficult thing.
Sometimes our submission is expressed in the making of a phone call, or, the writing of an email, and eating some humble pie. At other times, it’s choosing to do the daily grind, to every day face an unchanging situation. As the days, months, years go by, we ask God, “Why?” Sometimes, in our weaker moments we say, “Look, see how faithful I’ve been to what You asked me to do? Why haven’t You done Your part?” It’s possible to take it a step further and say, “Like Caleb, (Josh 14:12) I claim the promise. I have done my part; now give me what You promised to me and mine.”
The real lesson of obedience, I now know, is the heart with which I do it. And this is what makes walking in obedience so difficult. If obedience with pouting lips and frowning face were an acceptable gift to God, that would make it so much easier. But, the Lord loves a cheerful giver, (2 Cor 9:7), which means that in our obedience, our gift to Him, we should be cheerful. How can we do the very last thing that we want to be doing, but still be joyful in the process?
For it to be a good gift, at the root of obedience should be a heart that is learning to see God’s goodness in every little thing He provides for us, and blesses us with.
Is it possible to praise someone if we’re not thankful to them for something? I want my obedience to count. I want others to see that even when it is most difficult, I continue to put one foot in front of the other, believing in the goodness of a God whom I cannot see, and that like David, knowing that ‘I will see (His) goodness in the land of the living.’(Ps 27:13). But, I want more than that; I want to hear ‘well done, good and faithful servant’,(Matt 25:21), as a result of choosing to praise Him, and being both thankful and content as I obey Him.
Obedience is a great training ground for thankfulness.
© Debbie Mendoza ~ 2010
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