Obedience

I like sharing my real life experiences because one, they are real and two, they bless my heart. Children say things that as adults, we might dismiss, but I believe they know what they say, they know what they see, so parents don’t dismiss them. That said, my last born son spent the weekend in his uncle’s house and when he came home yesterday, he blessed all of us. When he woke up in the morning, he woke up his uncle and told him that God had taken him up, off course at this, his uncle is curious and wants to find out more, so he asks him to give him more details of what happened. He says, he had a dream in which he was taken up by a long ladder, and then God told him to obey him, and that the rest of us should also always obey God! I was shocked! I was amazed, but I know that God is not a respecter of persons, He does’t show any partiality, He can use anyone or anything to get His message across. As I sat there still, I called my son and asked him what happened and he repeated everything just as his uncle had said.

I kept asking myself, do I obey God? this question has being on my mind for the better part of today; do I follow his commands? do I? do we? What is to obey? The english dictionary puts it as, ‘to comply with the command, direction or request of a person or a law; to submit to the authority of. That said, what laws has God given unto us? have we complied with them?

Every single country in the world has rules and regulations, which its citizens are expected to comply and follow through, failure to which, if you are caught not following the rules, you will be arrested and prosecuted. We follow the rules of our country, we follow rules of where we work because we don’t want to loose our jobs! we used to follow school rules, heck we even follow rules set by our friends and loved ones, question is, do we follow God’s rules?

6)You shall not murder. You might not murder someone physically, but you might murder them with your harsh words! words that make dreams die! words so harsh they crush one’s spirit. 7) You shall not commit adultery. Keep the marriage bed holy. 8)You shall not steal. well you might not steal anything physically, but you stole your children’s time, you made a promise to spend time with them, but you didn’t, you were to busy at work and forgot all about them, everything else comes first except your family. 9)You shall not give false testimony about your neighbour. Speaking ill about other people, spreading propaganda yet you know that whatever your saying isn’t true at all! The truth always comes out, and the truth will set us free. Finally 10) You shall not covet your neighbours house. You shall not covet your neighbour’s wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbour. In other words, be content with what you have! Right now the ox and the donkeys are the cars that we drive, don’t look at your neighbours Lambogurgin and want to buy just like his! let us learn to be content and grateful to God for what He has given us.

The message is very clear! we need to obey God. I am not a saint, neither are we all! I don’t claim to know everything, none of us knows everything! have I made mistakes? yes by all means I have! who hasn’t? However I made a decision to follow Christ many years back and I am not about to change that decision. Have there being times I haven’t obeyed God, yes there have and am sure for most of us, but He desires obedience from us and not sacrifice. King Saul was given a mission by God, to completely destroy the Amalekites, but what did he do instead, he spared their king and took the best of the plunder in order to sacrifice them to the Lord, God didn’t want any of the fat rams and the best of the sheep! no He didn’t. 1Samuel 15:22-23 But Samuel replied: “Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice of the Lord? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams. For rebellion is like sin of divination, and arrogance like the evil of idolatry.” And with disobedience, God rejected Saul as King!

Can our disobedience cause God to reject us? He is a loving God, full of mercy and abounding in Grace, however, if we keep disobeying Him, then we will most definitely suffer the consequences in the very end. He who formed us in our mother’s womb will deny us on the day of judgement, why? because we denied Him on earth, we disobeyed Him and obeyed the world! we thought that His lifestyle was too boring for us and so we chose the world’s ways!

Everyday when you wake up its a new day, a new opportunity to serve God and obey His commands! Many of us slept through the night, sadly some did not wake up! Their time was up! You see, none of us knows when He cometh, none whatsoever! that is why we need to be vigil, having our lamps filled with oil, that when He comes, we will not be caught unawares like the foolish virgins and start looking for oil! it will be too late, He would have taken those who are ready and obedient to His bonquent, and the door will be shut!

Obey God, obey His commands, allow Him to be Lord and Saviour over your life and remember, Obedience is better than sacrifice!