Obedience--Despite...

Around 6 a.m. I looked out the floor-to-ceiling windows of the condo my husband and I had rented in Gulf Shores, Alabama. I expected to see the sun slowly appear, as it had on previous mornings, looking like a gigantic orange ball emerging from the watery depths of the Gulf of Mexico.  

A "normal" sunrise!

Instead, all I saw was a long, narrow band of orange on the horizon line that separated the water from the overcast sky. I couldn’t see the sun as it rose higher and higher that morning. Neither could I marvel as its light created pastel colors in the sky. Neither did I have to shield my eyes as the sun flooded the room with brilliant light, as I was accustomed to doing. 

Yet, the sun was there, following its God-ordained path, doing exactly what God created it to do, and adhering to the schedule God had set for it.

Likewise, when God sent His Son to earth at the appointed time, Jesus did exactly what the Father sent Him to do, no matter what people of His day assumed He would. With various words and at various times, He expressed this truth to God the Father: “I have come to do Thy will–Thy will, not My will.” (See Hebrews 10:5-10, Luke 22:42, Matthew 6:10, Matthew 26:39-42, etc.)

Oh, dear reader, may you and I faithfully do what God created us to do despite the “daily-ness” of our work, despite the circumstances that reduce our effectiveness, despite the fact that others often fail to see the good work we’re doing, despite their lack of positive response to it, despite….

Be Still

 With all the advice being given from so many sources today, rarely do we hear this wise counsel:

Does the command to be still, intrigue you? It does me. So, I looked it up in other translations. The Contemporary English Version (CEV) says, “Calm down, and learn that I am God.” The Passion Translation (TPT) says, “Surrender your anxiety. Be still and realize I am God.”

How do we do that? Find a quiet place to read God’s Word and talk with Him. Commit to obeying whatever He says—even if it goes against whatever we might prefer or whatever advice others have given. Follow the example of Jesus, who said to His Father, “Not what I want, but what You want.”

What Is Your Answer?

Here's how others have answered that important question:

David:

"I delight to do Your will, O my God" (Psalm 40:8).

Jesus:

"...I do not seek or consult My own will [I have no desire to do what is pleasing to Myself, My own aim, My own purpose] but only the will and pleasure of the Father who sent Me" (John 5:30. AMPC).

Paul:

"But my life is worth nothing to me unless I use it for finishing the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus--the work of telling others the Good News about the wonderful grace of God" (Acts 20:24, NLT).

What is your answer?

God's Way or My Way?

A book* I’m reading contains a short metaphor about a fish and a seagull. The fish tired of living in the water and decided he’d rather live on land. He swam and swam to “free” himself from the environment he felt was too restrictive. Finally, he reached the shore—and died. The seagull envied the freedom he observed in the ocean below. So he plunged in—and perished.

The author concludes the metaphor by noting that we may be more like the disgruntled fish and seagull than we realize. We long to break free of the “restrictions” God has placed upon us.  We think we know better than God does what is best for us. But…we forget that true life and freedom are found in living in harmony with our Maker rather than in opposition to Him. He made us. He knows what’s best for us. Any “restrictions” He places on us are for our good since “He lays boundaries with hands of love” (p.38).

We are wise when we willingly stay within them.  

*Before You Open Your Bible: Nine Heart Postures for Approaching God’s Word by Matt Smethurst, © 2019.

My Stubborn Will

If merely longing for change could make it happen, wouldn't that be wonderful? Yet, work is required to bring about the desired change. Work plus time plus resources plus self-discipline. And, most essential of all, God's guidance and help. 

As I reflect on the changes I'd like to experience, I realize that God does His part. He tells me in His Word what He wants me to be and do and how to accomplish that. Yet, even with such clear guidance, I'm still pretty much the "same ol' me" as I've been for years! I'm still struggling with the same unproductive habits: procrastination, excesses (weight, possessions, etc.), poor use of time, and so forth. I'm still longing for something to sweep over me and instantly transform me into what I should be--and want to be. I've been waiting for years for such a miracle.

But I'm beginning to understand that the changes I long for will not happen until I make myself DO what I know I should. That, Dear Reader, is called self-discipline. It's something I lack, as perhaps you do. Yet, it's essential if we are to follow God's guidance. He shows us what to do, but we are the ones who must do what He says. Otherwise, we'll never become all that He wants us to be, all that He will help us be.

As I said, God is faithfully doing His part. He's at work in me, causing me to will and to do His good pleasure. But I am unfaithful in doing my part. All too often, I refuse to make myself do what He says even though what He says to do is both right and beneficial. Like a pampered child, I sit back and wait for Him (or someone else!) to do my work for me. But that is not the way personal change will take place, is it?

O Father, help me to subdue my stubborn will that refuses to obey You. Help me to be able to say sincerely:

To listen to the song, click here.

Mind the Lord

A minister repeatedly said, "Mind the Lord." I hadn't heard that phrase in many years, but ever since I heard him use it, it has been ringing in my mind and heart.

For example, many times each day, I feel the Holy Spirit prompting me to write about a certain topic (like "mind the Lord") or to call someone or to send a card or to pray for a specific individual.

Each prompt provides me with an opportunity to "mind the Lord"--that is, to obey Him. I wish I could truthfully say I do everything He instructs me to do, but, sadly, I don't.

Sometimes I say, "I don't have time right now, but I'll do it later." However, later is sometimes weeks or months away.

Sometimes I say, "I'm willing, but I'm not sure what to say or how to do that, Lord."

Each time I delay, I disobey the Lord, and I withhold a blessing God wants to give to that person. Perhaps they need a word of encouragement to "keep on keeping on" with the good work they are doing. Perhaps they need to know that someone loves them enough to check on them. Perhaps they need financial assistance or help of another kind. Perhaps they're lonely and would enjoy talking with someone for a little while. Perhaps they're struggling with some issue and need a listening ear or a shoulder to cry on.

For all those reasons and many more, you and I need to mind the Lord. We need to do what He says to do and do it when He says to do it--without delay.

Do Not Give In To Them!

Doctors have never said, “You have attention deficit disorder,” but I think I do since I’m easily distracted. For example, one morning after I finished writing in my journal, I took a “stand up break” before beginning to write a blog post.

As I re-settled myself, I thought, I loved the Gordon McDonald poem Elisabeth Elliot read last night. I’ll search for it on the internet before I forget about it. Although I didn’t find it, I did discover videos that featured him. I watched one for a few minutes before I reluctantly hit pause (in order to write).

Then I thought, I need to get “caught up” on reading one chapter a day in the Book of Proverbs. While I read and jotted down insights, the minutes designated for writing slipped away as silently but as surely as sand in an hourglass. 

When I glanced at the clock, I thought. Oh, no! My writing time is gone. I’ve gotta get up and get busy.

Suddenly, the “Do not give in to them!” warnings I’d read in Proverbs 1:10-16 took on an expanded meaning. Although they warned me against giving in to enticements to do evil, I realized I must also resist giving in to distractions—even “good” ones—if they keep me from doing the work (writing) God asked me to do. Clearly, I must break my lifelong habit of letting GOOD things keep me from the BEST ones.

Last Days

Today I read the Biblical accounts (found in the Gospels) of how Jesus spent His last days on this earth. As I compiled a lengthy list, I noticed that, basically, He simply continued to do what He had been doing. He served others by healing them, by teaching them spiritual truths to live by, by answering questions put to Him by His disciples (and by those who didn’t believe He was who He said He was), by preparing them for His departure, and by comforting them with the assurance of His future return and with the promise of the coming of the Holy Spirit who would be their indwelling teacher and comforter.

Since He had always done whatever pleased the Father, Jesus needed to make no major changes in His daily practices. However, by the end of the week, He would face His greatest challenge and, thereby, teach the greatest lesson of all: how to obey the Father and to serve Him and others with great love, even though He would suffer--and die--in the process.

As I reflected on His example, I thought:

• Is my life so aligned with the Father’s will that I wouldn’t need to dramatically alter what I’m doing if I knew I would die within a week? 
• Can I say, as Jesus did, “I always do the will of the Father,” that I obey my Father at all times--no matter the high cost of obedience? 
• Can I truthfully say to God, what Jesus said in John 17:4, “I have brought You glory on earth by completing the work You gave me to do”? 

If not, I must begin TODAY to fully align my will with His and to let my daily attitudes and actions be in accordance with His wishes.

Follow!

Photo taken Nov. 2017 at Bellingrath Gardens in Alabama.

One recent morning, I woke up with the song, Rise Up, Shepherd, and Follow, playing in my mind, like a musical CD set on repeat. As I listened to those words, I thought about the practical aspects of what "rise up and follow" meant for me:

• Get up out of my warm, comfortable bed (even though I felt reluctant to do so) and begin the tasks I didn’t particularly want to do or feel competent to do.

• Learn more about Jesus and try to follow His example and keep His commandments. I do the “learning” part reasonably well. For example, I listen to Max MacLean read from the New International Version Bible (via the YouVersion app on my phone). I read and study God’s Word. I read books and commentaries written by other Christians. I discuss insights with other Christians, etc. But I find the “following His example and keeping His commandments” far more difficult to do, despite the subject/skill.

• Become a mentee, eager to learn from my Mentor, my Teacher, Who says in Matthew 11:28-30, NKJV:

Come to Me, 

all you who labor 

and are heavy laden, 

and I will give you rest.

Take My yoke upon you 

and learn from Me,

 for I am gentle 

and lowly in heart, 

and you will find rest 

for your souls.

For My yoke is easy 

and My burden is light.

That invitation is so wonderful that I can hardly believe it’s meant for me--and for you, too! But He does invite us, imperfect and inept though we are, to follow Him: to go wherever He goes, to listen and learn from all He does and says, to converse with Him as easily as with a dear friend, to consult with Him about matters both great and small….

In order to follow Him, you and I may have to eliminate some current activities and/or greatly reduce time spent on them. Although that will be difficult to do, it will be exhilarating to stay in close contact with Him at all times and to simply be and do whatever He says.

To listen to two different arrangements of that song, click here and here.

How Long???

So Joshua said to the people of Israel, “How long will you put off going in to take possession of the land, which the LORD, the God of your fathers, has given you?”

~Joshua 18:3, ESV

*****

Some phrases lodge in my brain and remain there for hours, days, or even years. That happened this morning as I was reading the Old Testament book of Joshua. The question above seemed to be directed to me and, thus, has lingered in my mind for hours and has prompted me to share it with you in case it’s a question you, too, need to answer.

Like God’s people in that ancient story, I’ve wasted many precious years “preparing” to do what God wants me to do. I tell myself, “One day I’ll be ready to take the big step and do great things for Him. I just need to learn a bit more and to opt out of some lesser commitments so that I will have time to obey Him.”

That's why I sensed God was asking me the same question Joshua asked. God has been extraordinarily patient with me, as He was with the Israelites, and has provided all that I could possibly need to do what He has asked me to do. Yet, I hang back, begging for more time to prepare in order to do my best for Him. I realize now that my fear has been holding me back, just as it held the Israelites back. That fear has another name, a much more serious one: unbelief. I have not fully believed that the One who assigned me a particular work will enable me to do it.

Today, I sense God is “putting it to me plain” by asking, “How much longer are you going to put off doing what I’ve asked you to do? How much longer are you going to come so close to full commitment to the work I’ve given you, yet fail to step out in faith and DO the work? How much longer are you going to let fear/unbelief rob you of the blessings I have in store for you?”

Father, forgive my lack of trust in You and my failure to carry out the work You’ve entrusted to me. I confess my sins of unbelief and disobedience and humbly ask You to forgive me and to help me to fully enter into the work and its subsequent blessings—beginning today. From this day forward, I will rely on this promise You made to Joshua when You assigned to him a daunting task: Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened and do not be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go (Joshua 1:9, ESV).

Seemingly Small

I enjoy reading about how God uses seemingly small acts of obedience to accomplish far more than we ever dreamed would happen. The “back story” to the hymn, I’m a Child of the King, proves that.

Harriet Buell wrote the words one Sunday while she was walking home from church. She submitted the song for publication. It was printed in the February 1, 1877, issue of the Northern Christian Advocate.

Six years later, when Peter Bilhorn was doing evangelistic work among the cowboys in the West, he and his traveling companions were traveling up the Missouri River on their way to Bismarck. When they stopped at Blunt one Sunday morning to unload freight, a crowd of men and boys came down to the wharf. Mr. Bilhorn took his little organ and went on the wharf-boat to sing a few songs, including I’m a Child of the King.  

He thought nothing more of it, but that was not the end of the story, as Mr. Bilhorn discovered the day he sang that same song in Rev. Moody’s church in Chicago. Afterward, a man in the back of the house stood up and talked about having heard that same song in Blunt, Dakota, two years ago. Although he was then an unsaved man, the song set him to thinking. He decided to accept Christ and was studying for the ministry.

As I reflected on that back story, I felt amazed at the wonderful ways God had used each person’s obedience. The woman, whose heart was filled with gratitude over being a “child of the King,” felt compelled to express her thoughts and to submit them to an editor who chose to publish them. Mr. Bilhorn somehow discovered the song and chose to sing it to the crowd of men and boys. At least one of them chose to believe the Good News that was shared in the simple, yet profound, words penned by Ms. Buell, words  that had finally reached him after having been passed along from person to person.

Dear Reader, since we never know how God will use us to help spread the Good News to those who do not yet know there is a God who loves them and wants to forgive them of their sins and to bring them into His family, may we eagerly do everything, even the seemingly small things, that the Holy Spirit of God prompts us to do. God will take our little and make it much!

The Path

Scotts Bluff National Monument, Nebraska

Thy Servant Is Listening

Although I was tired to the bone, I felt strangely drawn to a Kindle book I’d downloaded that day. So, instead of going to bed, as my tired body wanted to do, I curled up on the sofa, with my Kindle in hand, and began to read J.C. Ryle’s book, A Call to Prayer.

I was immediately captivated (and convicted!) by his words, which he’d written in the 1800's, so much so that I read past midnight and then past 1 a.m.

I realized (1) that the book was no ordinary one, (2) that God intended me to have it, (3) that He was speaking to me through the words He had inspired His servant, J.C. Ryle, to write many years before I was born, (4) that He was making me aware of my sin of prayerlessness, (5) and that He wanted me to confess that sin and turn from it immediately and permanently.

            I confessed that sin (and others!) and then asked God to help me to put Him first in my life, to continue to speak to me, and to help me obey Him.

            I slept soundly that night and then awoke the following morning feeling rested and ready to seek God and to do His will.

            Rather than just offer a quick prayer before I began to read from the Bible, I spent several minutes just talking with my Father and asking Him to speak to me through His Word and by His Spirit. He did!  

The passage that was “next up” on my daily Bible reading plan was 1 Samuel 3, a very familiar story about the young boy Samuel who received a word from the Lord, though such words were rare in those days, due to the fact that no one really wanted to hear what God had to say about anything.

During the night, Samuel heard a voice calling his name. Naturally, he assumed that Eli, the priest with whom he lived, was the one calling him. So, he ran to Eli’s bedside and said, “Here I am, for you called me” (v.5).

Since Eli had not been the one calling the boy, he instructed Samuel to go back to bed. But once again, Samuel heard someone calling his name and hurried to Eli’s bedside, where he learned that it was not Eli who was calling him.

When someone called Samuel a third time, he made another trip to Eli’s bedside. This time, Eli discerned that it was the Lord calling Samuel.

As before, Eli told Samuel to go back to bed, but he also said that if the Lord called Samuel again, Samuel should say, “Speak, LORD, for Thy servant is listening” (v.9).

The Lord did call to Samuel again. And when Samuel said, “Speak, for Thy servant is listening,” the Lord told Samuel what He wanted him to know and to do.

As soon as I’d finished reading those words, I knew that the same Lord who’d spoken to Samuel centuries ago was the One who’d been speaking to me the night before through the words of J.C. Ryle. I knew that the same Lord was the One speaking to me through His Word that morning. I knew that He intended me to obey Him, just as Samuel had.

After an extended prayer time, I felt compelled to go to the computer to write these words rather than do the other tasks that were “calling my name.” The Lord had spoken to me, I listened to Him, and I obeyed. May that continue to be true of me—and of you, Dear Reader.

© 2014 by Johnnie Ann Burgess Gaskill