Some choices come easy. Those that do, usually don’t qualify as obedience.
I don’t fish. I’d be hard-pressed if you asked me to set a fishing pole. When I came across this sign on my walk, I chuckled and said to myself,
“I can do that!”
I had no problem obeying. Digging through six inches of fresh snow and several inches of ice and wait in the cold for a bite does not sound like a merry pastime to me. (I know some of you are avid ice-fishermen. Sorry, for you the analogy has just broken down.)
Obedience involves deliberate thought and effort. It is usually inconvenient, hard, annoying and scary. Our adoption worker told us something five years ago. Her words still come back to me.
“If adoption was easy, everybody would be doing it!”
Following Jesus into any calling is more than not doing something. Christian obedience is costly. Submitting to Christ means to follow Him, often into uncomfortable situations, many times seemingly impossible circumstances.
However, Jesus has promised to be with us. He told us He’d leave us a Helper who would not abandon us to the insurmountable. For the follower of Christ, the Holy Spirit is never more than a breath away. He lives in us.
With His help we can do more than simply follow what comes easy; In Him we have the power to obey, no matter how difficult the mission.
“If you love me, keep my commands. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.”
John 14:15-18
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Let me know what you think