A Heart of Obedience

"If you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully follow all His commands I give you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations on earth.  All these blessings will come upon you and accompany you if you obey the Lord your God..."  ~Deuteronomy 28:1-2

Obedience is a fundamental part of trusting God.  I will be going on a missions trip to Cuajiniquil, Nicaragua at the end of May.  Through preparing for this trip, I have been learning what it means to truly obey God...and it hasn't been easy.  I have had to obey God, even while going against the wishes of my own father.  It breaks my heart to disobey my earthly father, but obeying my heavenly Father is my heart's desire.  Because of my obedience, God has faithfully and excessively provided all the funds I will need.  I can't wait to see what else God will do from this act of obedience.

But being obedient isn't always this easy.  I am reminded of the story of Moses in the desert...

In Numbers 20, the Israelite people came to Moses complaining they had no water to drink.  Moses brought this to God.  God then commanded Moses to speak to the rock so it would pour out its water.  Then, Moses took his staff in front of the assembly.  He struck the rock twice with his staff...instead of speaking to it.  Yes, water still came out of the rock but not because of Moses' obedience.  Moses was told to speak to the rock, but instead of trusting God, he struck the rock instead.  For this simple act of disobedience the Lord said to Moses, "Because you did not trust in me enough to honor me as holy in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this community into the land I give them." (Numbers 20:12)  A disobedient heart kept Moses (a man of admiration) from entering the sacred Promised Land!  When I first read this, I thought it was extremely harsh!  In a way, it even made me somewhat angry, but how could a disobedient man lead an entire nation into God's Holy Land?  I discovered even more about obedience a few days later...

I attended a Revive meeting (a sort of college youth group).  One of the Revive leaders was speaking that night, and he just happened to bring his dog, Missy.  I watched Missy very carefully.  Each time the speaker moved, Missy followed him.  When he called, she came.  If he whistled to her, she dropped everything she was doing and went straight to him.  Missy was urgently obeying her master.  She had a desire to please him.  She also had a fear of  not obeying him.

After watching this dog follow her master's every move, I realized that I should be doing the same thing...and Moses should have done the same thing.  Obeying God should be my first priority.  I should follow His every move.  I should wait urgently for His every command.  I should peer up at Him looking for His approval before moving forward.  I should seek to please Him.  And I should fear disobedience towards Him.  He is the one true God.  He has the power to keep me out of my own promised land.  But obedience toward Him, will bring blessings beyond belief!

"So if you faithfully obey the commands I am giving you today-to love the Lord your God and to serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul- then I will send rain on your land in its season, both autumn and spring rains, so that you may gather in your grain, new wine and oil.  I will provide grass in fields for your cattle, and you will eat and be satisfied."  ~Deuteronomy 11: 13-15

If we truly expect to be blessed by God, then we must prepare for the rain...by being obedient to Him.  It will not be easy, but it will always be worth it!