No, this post is not about teaching our children obedience. But instead it is about our own obedience to the Lord.
Seeking the Lord for 2017
I have been seeking the Lord for a verse or word for the coming year. I always try to do it so as to have an anchor of sorts for the year ahead. Sometimes I get it almost immediately and sometimes nothing (or at least I think nothing which to me means to keep doing what I am doing because He isn’t done with me!)
Obedience
Well, the word “obedience” kept coming up. I sighed and shuddered slightly. Sighed because it obviously meant that I haven’t learnt it properly or enough. Obedience has been the theme in my faith walk for a long while. Maybe it is retribution for all those years under my parents’ authority that I refused to obey but kept on rebelling? Oops! Shuddered because I am apprehensive. I am afraid of what He is going to ask me to do!
Fellow large family ministry couple
Well, last week, we had lunch with a lovely couple who has served as missionaries with YWAM (Youth With A Mission) for years. They have 6 lovely children, oldest is 34 and the youngest 17! So yeah, it was nice to meet up with fellow sojourners of the faith who also has a large family. While we can always learn from everyone, raising a large family while serving the Lord full time is just a different kettle of fish.
One piece of advice
After much chit chat and sharing of lives, Henson asked them – what would you leave/share with us as a couple who has walked this journey many more years than we have. And David Cole said, “Obey the Lord”. He added that when we obey God, the children see obedience modelled for them. They will also see the value and the rewards of life of obedience.
Hmm…There is that word, “obedience” again!
Faith
A few days later, Tracey of Memoirs of a Budget Mum, fellow local homeschooling mother of a large family (she has 5) posted a cute picture of her youngest one attempting to climb the stairs. And on that Facebook post, she had this quote,
Thank God it wasn’t the word “obedience” I thought! But as I mulled over it, I realised that it still had to do with obedience because obedience goes hand in hand with faith! Remember the old hymn, Trust (faith) and Obey” by John H Sammis? The last two lines of the hymn goes,
“What He says we will do, where He sends we will go;
Never fear, only trust and obey.”
We need to do* and go* in response to His call. And in that Martin Luther King Jr. quote, what would cause us to take the first step in faith? It is again a response to His call, i.e. obedience.
Obedience, obedience, obedience. I guess God is making His word to me really clear???
Obey in faith
The thing about God, faith and obedience is this : When God tells us to do something, He almost always doesn’t show us how it will pan out. He also doesn’t guarantee success or popularity or comfort. He just gives a command. It is only as we obey that command in faith that He will reveal the next step. And as we take that next step, he reveals the step after that and so on. And by obeying, our faith level increases.
Struggling to obey
In response to Tracey’s Facebook post, I wrote, “Amen!!! That’s been our motto for everything God has called us to.” I think I can safely speak for Henson that that quote sums up our faith walk since 1994, when I came into the faith and God called him back. And no, it hasn’t gotten easier. It is something that we have had to wrestle with every time He calls us to do something for Him.
I guess it does not get easier because the stakes get higher and the cost bigger? Not very encouraging huh? But the rewards are also bigger and better. And His Glory shines a little bit brighter through us. Or so we hope!
Choosing to obey God
Here are some of the big things He has called us to do and go for Him. There are little ones too but then, there would be too many to list!
- Trusting him with our family size and spacing
- Homeschooling
- Starting and continuing with this blog even though demands of the family and ministry grew
- Stepping out of a secular career into fulltime ministry with no job in sight
- Starting Archippus Awakening
- Writing and self-publishing a book
To obey is better than sacrifice
Obedience is hard because it requires us to die to ourselves, and to say “no” to our flesh. But as the Prophet Samuel reminded Saul in 1 Samuel 15:22, “Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, And to heed than the fat of rams.” In that incident, (Read 1 Samuel 15 for the full story) Saul had good intentions but it was contrary to God’s instructions. In other words, good deeds and intentions do not cancel out disobedience.
For example :
You are organising a Christmas dinner party. You tell your maid to prepare and cook dinner by 7pm. All the necessary ingredients have been bought. You leave the house to buy last minute Christmas presents. You return at 6:30pm and realised to your horror that dinner has not been cooked but the house has been beautifully cleaned and decorated. Would you be pleased? Reward her for a job well done?
And so it is with obedience and God.
John 14:15 says, “If you love me, keep my commands”. 1 John 2:4 says, “Whoever says, “I know him (Jesus),” but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in that person.”
What is God saying to YOU?
I guess OBEDIENCE is my word for 2017. What is yours?
I hope this post will help you also think through your own faith walk with God. Has God been impressing upon you to do something or not do something and you have been steadfastly ignoring that prompting, choosing to drown yourself in good works?
If so, it is disobedience.
We cannot say we love God and yet disobey His commands. Is there something the Lord has told you to do or not to do? Do not procrastinate any longer!
*Please note : We do not do and go in response to God’s call to earn our salvation. We cannot earn our salvation or that would make Jesus’ death on the Cross pointless. But we do and go out of our love for Him. Just as we would do a task for the one we love and go where our loved one asks us to go.