Obedience

What does it mean to be obedient to God? A few Scriptures say:

Walk in obedience to all that the Lord your God has commanded you, so that you may live and prosper and prolong your days in the land that you will possess. Deuteronomy 5:33

But be very careful to keep the commandment and the law that Moses the servant of the Lord gave you: to love the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him, to keep his commands, to hold fast to him and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul.” Joshua 22:5

Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? Romans 6:16

So what do these scriptures mean for your life? Whenever the Lord is calling you to do something, you may or may not want to do it, but he truly knows what is best for you. He has plans to not harm you but to give you a hope and a future. Jeremiah 29:11

He knows what path you should take and what would be detrimental to your future. If you decide to listen and be obedient to His commands, that can lead to Him showing you the next steps He has over your life.

I will be completely honest and say I was struggling with disobedience for a while. For about 8 months, I couldn’t understand why things wouldn’t go my way or why I was so unhappy with myself. I had the worst self-esteem and compared myself and my life to others more than ever. Internally, I wasn’t at peace for some reason and the Lord wasn’t talking to me unless it was about how I needed to be obedient to His command. At the time, I was in a relationship and deep down I knew that the Lord was telling me that I needed to be single for a season. That I needed to focus on Him so I could become whole in Him. I will be honest and say that I wasn’t ready to face those emotions. I didn’t want to deal with the heartache or deal with hurting the guy I was with. I didn’t want to deal with any of it.

To call it for what it was, I wasn’t trusting God to see me through the situation. After a while, I just completely stopped spending time with Him. I knew that He wouldn’t talk to me unless it was about my disobedience and since I wasn’t ready to be obedient, I started focusing on the world and not Him and became content with the way things were. (which sucked btw) The “contentment” in that season of disobedience never lasted long because the Holy Spirit would always tug on me letting me know He was still there but waiting for me to do right. See, He wanted to use me, but I couldn’t be used if I wasn’t being obedient.

Since I was barely spending time with Him, I wasn’t going to church faithfully like I once did. On one particular Sunday, the Holy Spirit woke me up and insisted that I make it to church that morning.

That particular Sunday, my pastor preached on ‘Coming to the end of yourself’. The message particularly focused on shame and guilt. I felt completely moved by that sermon because it was exactly what the Lord needed me to hear. I felt so much shame and guilt for what I had done when I was living for my flesh and not being obedient. It was in that service when I knew I could no longer continue in my disobedience. I truly came to the end of myself at that moment.

That night, I decided to listen to what the Lord had been telling me to do and ended the relationship. It took COMPLETE faith and his strength to let it go. Does it still sting? Yes, and of course I’m still healing, but I’m being sure to trust that God will see me through it.

What I quickly learned from that season was that the Lord wasn’t going to give me instruction on the next steps in my life unless I was obedient to the first one. The reason why nothing was happening and why I wasn’t hearing from Him as much was because I wasn’t listening to His first command.

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take" (Proverbs 3:5-6, NLT)

Since I’ve been single, I’ve been spending time with Him DAILY and I am able to hear clearly what He is calling me to do. I have truly felt empowered and motivated to do what He is calling me to do. I have faith that He is starting a work in me, and He will complete it. He will absolutely do the same for you!

I am also learning how much God truly loves His children and how to love others with that same love He shows me. To know that He cares so much about us that He wants nothing but the best for us is what true love is.

If you find that things aren’t moving, that your life is at a standstill and you don’t know why, ask yourself if you are doing what God told you to do. He has been speaking to you to complete the first task, but you have to do that before He will give you instruction on the next.

What we need to realize is that going with our own way of living can be detrimental to our future and well... Make life a lot harder than it has to be. Being a child of God means being led by the Holy Spirit. Thank God that we have Him to lead us because He truly wants us to prosper.

So if you’re struggling with disobedience and you know what the Lord is commanding you to do, please surrender and do it! Nothing compares to the true LOVE, peace, and intimacy with God that you will receive from being obedient!

Amaiya K ♡