Obedience is Better than SacrificeSpeaker: Dr. Paul Dhinakaran Gist: Obey the One who made the heaven and earth. Then surely you will be blessed. The Lord longs to shower all His blessings upon you when you yield to His will. Implicitly obedience is all that is needed. A missionary and his family lived in the dense forests of Africa. One day his son was playing in the shade of a tree. All of a sudden, the father called out to his son, "My son! Obey my orders implicitly, at once. Fall upon your face and crawl slowly towards me, and then get up and run!" The boy faithfully obeyed the father and embraced him. Then the boy turned back to see a huge viper hanging on a branch of the tree just above where he had been playing. If he had not implicitly obeyed his father and asked reasons, saying, "Why?" and "What for?" he would have been a victim of that deadly snake.
This is the kind of obedience which the Lord expects in our lives.
"Obey My voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be My people. And walk in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well with you." (Jeremiah 7:23)
Dear freind, when you obey the Lord wholeheartedly and keep His commandments, you will surely be blessed!
"Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine." (Exodus 19:5)
After the fall of the city of Jericho, Joshua told the people, "And you, by all means abstain from the accursed things, lest you become accursed when you take of the accursed things, and make the camp of Israel a curse, and trouble it. But all the silver and gold, and vessels of bronze and iron, are consecrated to the Lord; they shall come into the treasury of the Lord" (Joshua 6:18,19). But Achan took for himself a few of the accursed things. Because of his disobedience, he brought the curse of God on himself, his tribe and all the children of Israel, who stoned him to death in the valley of Achor.
Very often we disobey some of the explicit commandments of God. Quite often, because we do not offer our tithes to God, disobeying His command in Malachi 3:10, we bring down His curse upon us. Jesus Himself said, "Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's." (Matthew 22:21)
Three friends who were very stingy once participated in a Sunday worship service. All of a sudden, the Pastor announced that a special offering would be taken for missionary work. The three men shuddered at having to part with their money. Just as the offering bag was brought near them, one of them pretended to faint, and he fell down. The other two quickly carried him out of the church. Offertory over, the three walked in and resumed their seats.
Today, there are so many who preach the commandments of God, but are unwilling to obey them; and they may not be able to experience the blessings of the Lord. But let us obey God's commandments in every way. He will surely bless us.
When Peter and the other apostles stood firmly for spreading the gospel of Christ, the high priest and the Sadducees forbade their preaching and locked them up in the common prison. "But at night an angel of the Lord opened the prison doors and brought them out, and said, 'Go, stand in the temple and speak to the people all the words of this life'" (Acts 5:19,20). They obyed his words and resumed their preaching. When the high priest asked them, "Did we not strictly command you not to teach in this name?" (Acts 5:28), Peter and the other apostles boldly answered, "We ought to obey God rather than men." (Acts 5:29)
We too according to the Lord's direction should proclaim Christ all over the world, witness before our neighbours and fulfill His command. Very often we have difficulties in obeying these commands of God. Sometimes the demands of our family or the society stand in the way of our obedience. But our Lord Jesus Himself grants us the grace needed for such obedience.
"Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature." (Mark 16:15)
"Though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered. And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him." (Hebrews 5:8,9)
That is why today, when we pass through sorrows and sufferings, He grants us His grace to endure them. Dear friend, make up your mind to obey God's commandments from today. You will experience God's richest blessings upon your life.
Prayer:
Loving Heavenly Father,
Help me to obey You in everything. Enable me with Your Holy Spirit to spread the gospel of love all over the world. As long as I live on this earth, let me be Your witness to the glory of Your kingdom. Let not any wordly cares or sorrows make me disobey Your words in any situation of my life. In the mightiest name of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ I pray.
Amen. |