My title for this devotion is Understanding vs Obedience.
I was reading this morning (as rain fell effectively stopping my 6:00 bike ride) and ran across a phrase:
Understanding can wait; obedience cannot.
Boy, I had to stop and chew on that! How many times has God asked me to do something and I’ve not understood but did it anyway? I can’t say I’ve always been the most willing participant in some of what I was to do. Move to a new place. Being asked to leave a ministry with a deadline of when to be out.
Then I read something in 2 Chronicles that stopped me dead in my tracks. In verses 10-14 it says, “So Saul died for his breach of faith. He broke faith with the Lord in that he did not keep the commands of the Lord, and also consulted a medium (my note: the witch of Endor), seeking guidance. He did not seek guidance from the Lord.”
In I Samuel 15 Samuel confronted Saul about his lack of obedience with these words: “To obey is better than sacrifice, and to do than the fat of rams.” In other words: “Saul, I don’t really care about your lame excuse to sacrifice animals. What I do care about is your obedience and you messed up.” (Sorry: loose paraphrase) 🙂 Seems Saul had an issue with obedience. And he certainly had an issue with understanding God’s desire!
So do I at times. God doesn’t always expect me to understand but He does expect me to be obedient. As a take off from yesterday’s devotion (July 22), no matter how long or “up in the air” I am, He wants my obedience. Understanding may wait; obedience is now.
“Father, I don’t have to understand all things. I DO have to be obedient. When issues come I don’t understand, help me to be obedient and trust your goodness.”
Wow, Bill! Just reading your title caused me to say, “WHOAH!”
Good message! Needful. Thank you.
I pray all is going well with the “clean out”.
I just created my Sermon-in-a-sentence on my FB page with your quote. It really is a message in a sentence!
I’m humbled Diane. I’m not on FB but I will ask Jo.
Thanks Diane. All is going as well as can be expected. We can see the light at the end of the tunnel. I wrote about that at my other blog today.
Your words here today truly gave me pause, Bill. I certainly need to think about the ways I am being obedient or not even when I don’t understand.
Blessings and prayers!
They were convicting for me as well Martha.
This is easy to relate too…
It’s easy to go to church and mark it off your list, but that means zero in God’s economy. He is, and has always been, all about the heart…
No argument here Floyd on that. Thanks for the comment.