Learning Obedience
The life of obedience is a life of following Christ. If we commit ourselves to obeying God, He will train us until obedience becomes a way of life.
I. Obedience involves commitment. We can identify people who are committed to obeying God by two traits:
- The truly committed are primarily concerned about grieving the heart of a loving God when they sin.
- The truly committed are concerned with how the consequences of their sin will affect them and others.
II. Obedience always brings blessings, while disobedience always brings pain.
- The curse of God is a declaration of His intended judgement on unbelievers.
- Believers will face only God’s loving chastisement, which may be painful, but is for their own good.
III. To learn obedience to God, we must:
- Learn to wait upon the Lord in prayer (Isa. 40:31).
- Develop a love for the Word of God (Psa. 119:23).
- Realize that to obey God often means a head-on collision with human reasoning and the world system (Prov. 1:6-7).
- Know that sometimes God will allow us to walk in the dark so that we will learn to trust Him (Prov. 3:5-6).
- Expect some inner struggles (Rom. 7:15).
- Learn that there is no substitute for obedience (Deut. 11:26-28).
- Learn to leave all the consequences of our obedience to God (Prov. 16:3).
As believers, we will face many decisions in life. But our ultimate question when making choices should be: Is this decision in keeping with my commitment to obey God?
Questions for reflection
- In addition to your decision to receive Christ, have you made a commitment to be obedient to God?
- Is there an area of your life in which you struggle to be obedient?
- What is preventing you from submitting your whole life – your relationships, your future, your job, your health, your children – to the Lordship of Jesus?
- Examine the above list of seven steps to obedience. Do you have trouble with one in particular? If so, memorize the corresponding Scripture passage for encouragement.
Prayer
“Lord, help me to be obedient to you. Place within my heart the desire to demonstrate my love for You through obeying Your Word.”
Lord Jesus, I thank You for Debbie55 and her desire to be obedient to You. I ask that You would pour Your Holy Spirit into Her heart, that Debbie may fully experience the fullness of Your amazing love, mercy, and grace. O Lord, reveal Yourself to Debbie55 in that special way that only You know she needs and lead her into that Secret Place of the Most High where she can pour out the pain in her soul to You, knowing that You are holding her tenderly close to Your heart. I pray that the fear of failing You melts away as You shine Your Light into Debbie’s deep wounds and that Your healing touch would melt away any unforgiveness and bitterness that reside deep within her, O God. Thank You, Lord Jesus, that You accept and love Debbie unconditionally, and that You have promised to wipe away every tear from her cheeks. May the gentleness of Your healing hands walk Debbie ever closeness to complete surrender to You, O Lord, and as she relaxes under Your loving gaze, may she come to the revelation that You truly delight in her just because she is Yours. O Lord, I praise You for Debbie’s heart-desire to please You. Assure Debbie that there is now no comdemnation for those who are in You, O Christ Jesus, and thank You that she is Your precious daughter, the apple of Your eye, and her Perfect Husband! In Your holy and precious name, Lord Jesus, I ask these things. Amen.
I have been divorced for nearly 10 years now. My journey with Jesus is as long as I am old but am I unsure of my obedience. I know since my divorce I talk to Jesus daily (give or take a few missed days). I make up the missed days with multiple daily conversations. Still my obedience is in question. I am reclusive and I recently was told I was bitter. I have done several maybe not many good things for people. I love to help people but I do not know how to be with people. I work in a difficult environment. One I love and hate. I love the type of work but I do not love the management. I feel controlled and manipulated. I also feel gaslighted. I have been accused of sabotage and I feel I would never do something like this. I think it is because the managing and control does not allow me to do my job to the best of my ability and things fail. I need prayers to strengthen my obedience to God and not allow the worldly confusions to take over my mind. Thank you for you article.
Well Joie,
If you are a teenager…I was a teenager as well and had a hard time obeying my parents because I did not know God and Jesus Christ was not in my heart yet. I did not know what God wanted of me. Mostly, Gog wants us to be obedient to Him and to love Him. I invite you to find out more about that by contacting a mentor who will talk with you privately. We want to help by providing you the answers that you nee. Peace is a wonderful thing to have and so many people would pay a lot of money just to have it. God can give it to you right now. Be obedient to Him. Please if you like you can follow that link: http://powertochange.com/experience/talk-to-a-mentor/
It’s hard for me to be obedient to my parents.I give them a hard time. I don’t want but it’s this demon that I have inside that i know only god can help me with. This and being rude is what is holding me back from me giving my life to god so that he can give me the holyghost!!!
Please pray for my kids and I. Im single parent of 5 kids, I left my job after 10 yrs of being mentally & verbally harrased n put in a hostile work environment. Im losin my home n have no money, im havin a very difucult time gettin a job. We are goin to chuch now, and Im reading my bible daily. I have invited God in and I feelin like I am gettin.a personal relationship to Him. I talk to God thruout the day, and so do my kids. I understand now how to be obediant to God and that is something I am more than willing to do. I need prayers to get a job that pays enough so I can keep my home and financially survive so my kids and I have a place to live. Thank you all. God Bless you all…
Hi, Angie I understand what you are saying. We have to remember that are our walk with God & being a Christian isn’t easy. Psalm 34:19 “Many are the afflictions of the righteous but God delivers him out of them all.” We have to study & meditate on the word of God daily. Spending time with God praying allows us to become closer to him and in turn it becomes easier to follow him and be obedient. I have experienced myself friends or people bringing up the past of how you used to be or what you used to do. Like you said today is what matters. (Philippians 3:13 ) That you know better & are trying to be better now. Don’t be concerned about what other people say or think. Your relationship with God matters most. God loves us & only wants the best for us.
Please pray for me I want to be obedient and never a mediocre christian. I love God always loved him, always wanted to walk with him but last night I received word from a friend that I always lived my life as a mediocre Christian and I have to change that…..if something happened in the past I don’t want to remember it my life is different now and what i’m living now is what really concerns me……please pray for me so I can follow God closely and never leave
This is great information. Obedience is definately something we have to learn. God wants us to always be obedient so that he can bless us. For the second step above Psalm 119:23 is a good reference scripture. I found some others that are great as well.(Psalm 119:97) (Romans 8:35-39) (Psalm 34:10)
In my 10 years of Christian growth the most difficult exercise has been showing a loving spirit towards those who exhibit hatefulness towards me.
learning to be obedient to God and others