OBEDIENCE

Dear Self, 

Obedience is a word that I don’t have a great relationship with. I was always kind of the ‘rebel’ child growing up, never really following my parent’s rules as instructed. I would always be the one to stretch the limit or find the loophole. As I grow deeper with my Father, however, I realize that I am not obedient. I have to justify the things that He says, to my agenda, first, and then I can follow it. Or, I have to overanalyze it to a point where I have a step by step plan on how it is going to fit into my life.

Today, I was able to practice a little more obedience. I’ve been having this lingering desire for a while to go to the beach and sit with God.  I have been living in an inland location for a while so I have been far from the beach. But this week, I moved back home on the east coast, 5 minutes from the beach. A week has now passed, and for one reason or another, I have avoided going to the beach in the morning or evening. Whether that was because of anxiety, discomfort, or laziness. Today, however, I woke up rested, praise God, for the first time since I have moved home. I woke up just as the sun was rising in the sky, I could see it out of my window. I felt the Spirit moving me to go to the beach. “I have to do my hair, skincare routine, and morning hygiene,” I told myself. “I have to eat and then drive all the way there.” “It might be hot, there might be bugs crawling on me or biting me!” But then, I realized that these were all my habitual tendencies to fit God’s calling into MY plan, in order to be obedient. Not today. I quickly washed and packed some fruit, put my hair back, and jumped in the car. 

I connected with God, and I feel absolutely refreshed and at peace, ready to start my week. 

Thank you God for knowing what I need and guiding me to do it even when my humanity thinks it knows better.

the Bible says: “to obey, is better than to sacrifice...” in 1 SAMUEL 15:22

Here the prophet Samuel was speaking to Saul about Saul and his army destroying the Amalekite people. The instruction was to utterly destroy them, but Saul and his army decided it was BETTER to spare the good sheep and oxen for a sacrifice unto God. I’m sure Saul and his army had good intentions, but ultimately, they were disobedient. It doesn’t matter what intentions you have when you do something that God asks, if you are disobedient, it is sin, BIG or small! And that is where faith comes in. We have to trust God as the creator, maker, wise ruler of all beings, father, son, spirit, and everything else He is. And that HIS plan, will, and knowledge is GREATLY superior than anything that our human minds, which He CREATED, can come up with. 

Again, to OBEY is better that to sacrifice. 

Obedience. 

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