[ecko_quote source="Jeremiah 17:7"]Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, And whose hope is the Lord [/ecko_quote]
The Bible is primarily not a book which can be explained; it is first and foremost a book which needs to be believed in and obeyed. Whether you understand it or not, God says it! You simply obey it. Just consider when taking a medicine or flying in an aircraft or driving a car, do we have to understand the entire technology and formulas before we use those services and products. Absolutely not! we take medicine as prescribed, board the plane and drive the car having full faith in those created matters. However, we often struggle to put our trust and believe in our Lord who created everything.
Moreover, don't substitute human reasoning for obedience. So many times we like to tell God how He ought to do things. I can imagine those early disciples when Saul was making havoc of the church and carrying Christians off to prison and death. I imagine there were many praying, “Oh, God, do something about Saul. Strike him dead.” However, God did not want to strike him dead. God struck him alive! And aren't you glad He did?
Obedience to God’s commands comes from within your heart. When you are begining to struggle in obeying God, that is clear indication that your heart has shifted away from Him. Some claim “I love God, but I am having difficulty obeying Him in certain areas of my life. That is a spiritual impossibility. For example, if you told your spouse that you loved her at certain times but that you struggled to love her other times, your relationship would be in jeopardy. Yet we assume that God is satisfied with occasional love or partial obedience. He is not. Obedience without love is legalism, and there are many pagan religions that fall into this category.
Our Lord never insists upon obedience because he gave free will to choose or not to choose. He tells us very emphatically, what we ought to do, but He never takes means to make us do it. We have to obey Him out of our discipleship. He prefaced it with an IF- we do not need to unless we want to. The Lord does not give me rules. He makes His standard very clear, if my relationship with Him is that of love, I will do what He says without any hesitation. If I hesitate, it is because I love someone else in the competition. Jesus Christ will not help me to obey Him; I must obey Him; and when I do obey Him, I fulfil my spiritual destiny.
As Christians, we can waste our lives standing on faith’s shoreline, never venturing beyond ankle-deep water. There we have little need for God; after all, we are safe on the beach, far from the danger of high waves and storms. However, believers who release themselves into deeper waters of obedience need the Lord desperately. The Christian life becomes exciting when we wade into the water so deep that our feet no longer touch the bottom. Then we must stand on God’s promises.
Isn't it strange how God works? You see, our ways and God's ways are very different. It is why we have to say, “I will trust You and obey. “Trust and obey, for there's no other way, to be happy in Jesus- But to trust and obey
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