Trust and Obedience

Ever since the beginning of time, humans have struggled with obedience to God. We are good at coming up with reasons in an attempt to justify our disobedience, but it all falls short. Obedience isn’t easy for us, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t do it. In fact, obeying God often requires us to do hard things — sometimes He asks us to do really hard things — but we can trust that anything He asks us to do (or not do) is for our good and His glory. There are blessings that come from obeying God — they aren’t always immediate and we don’t always get to know what they are, but it’s always in our best interest to do what He says. It was for our good and God’s glory that Mary was obedient to trust God and deliver Jesus as a baby and it was for our good and God’s glory that Jesus was obedient to carry out the Father’s will in His death and resurrection. Those were not easy things by any means, but they were both done out of obedience to God — and I’m eternally grateful for them.

In Jeremiah, God speaks through Jeremiah to talk to the people of Israel and prophecies to them about things that were going to happen. The people had been repeatedly disobedient and God had graciously given them multiple opportunities to repent and be forgiven, but they continued to rebel and disobey. At one point after hearing from Jeremiah, the people respond and this is what they said to Jeremiah in Jeremiah 42:6, “”…Whether it is good or bad, we will obey the voice of the LORD our God to whom we are sending you, that it may be well with us when we obey the voice of the LORD our God.””At this point they recognized that obeying God was the best decision they could make. They acknowledged that no matter what God said — whether they liked it or not — it was worth obeying even if it was hard.

As I mentioned above, Mary was obedient to God even though she wasn’t sure what every detail was going to look like. When she was told that she was going to conceive and give birth to Jesus even though she was a virgin, she asked how it would come to be and then ended her conversation with the angel in Luke 1:38 which says, “And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.” She was willing to obey God as His servant because even though she didn’t have all the details, she trusted Him. She knew that obedience was the best option and that’s what she chose to do.

When Jesus is in the Garden of Gethsemane praying, He knew that what He was about to do — willingly lay down His life in order to forgive our sins and make a way for us to be reconciled to the Father for eternity — was going to be hard and excruciatingly painful, yet He was willing to go through with it out of obedience to God. Luke 22:42 says, “saying, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.”” His death on the cross was far from easy. He was fully God and fully man, which means that He experienced all of the pain of that torturous death and the weight of all of our sin. He didn’t do that because it was easy, He did it because He was obedient to God and He knew that it was for our good and God’s glory that He endured that cross. Hebrews 12:2 says, “looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” Jesus focused on the joy in the midst of the hardest thing He had to do. He chose obedience for us.

The impact of our obedience can be felt for generations — so can our disobedience. As we find ourselves in the midst of another Christmas season, may we not lose sight of what a beautiful thing obedience to the Father is. Our disobedience to the Father led to our need for a Savior. The obedience of Jesus to the Father led to our salvation. Jesus showed us how to live. He demonstrated what obedience the Father looks like and taught us how to be obedient also. Whenever we obey God, we’re bringing Him glory and sowing seeds of obedience into our family.

While obeying God isn’t always easy, it is always for our good and His glory to do so. He is always with us. Matthew 1:23 says, “”Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us).” God is with us and He is for us and He is in the details. He loves us more than we can possibly imagine and we can trust Him completely. We can obey Him no matter what He asks of us — even when it’s hard, scary, or we don’t have all the details — because He is good all the time. I’m eternally grateful that Jesus chose to obey the Father that we might have eternal life. I’m also grateful for all of the people throughout history that chose obedience to God even when it wasn’t easy because every act of obedience makes a difference. It is my prayer that I would have the same kind of humility and trust that Mary did when she was called on to carry God’s Son.

Song(s) of the Week: It only seems fitting to make this weeks songs two of my absolute favorite Christmas songs! First up, “Mary, Did You Know?” by Pentatonix and “How Many Kings” by Downhere. Enjoy!