Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Radical Obedience

What is radical obedience?

Is it selling all of our possessions and moving to Africa to be a missionary?

Is it adopting orphans from a foreign land inviting them into a loving home?

Is it going to church every Sunday and Wednesday?

Is it quitting our secular job to go work in the ministry full time or volunteer our time?

It might be any of the above or all of the above or...

It might mean forgiving a brother or sister in Christ who has offended you.

It might mean helping a neighbor by watching her kids after school even if you are tired from a busy day.

It might mean making a meal for a family going through a difficult situation.

It might mean going out of your way to talk to that person that everyone else avoids.

See, we often think of radical obedience as being this huge request God asks of us that requires sacrifice and significant dying of our wants and self.   

Everyday acts of obedience also require sacrifice and crucifying our flesh.  It is those everyday mundane decisions of obedience that make up a life surrendered to God.

Last week I wrote about God asking me to give Him my hurts and forgive some people who had deeply wounded me.  I did give it to Him at the time.  However,  I found that my thoughts kept going back and replaying the hurt over in my mind.  I knew God was asking me to surrender this to Him once and for all.

I know the dangers of offense.  I have been down that road before.  If not for the grace of God and His loving correction and insight, I would have ended up in a heaping pile of toxic unforgiveness and resentment.  I know offense poisons the soul and darkens the heart.  And I know I cannot walk with God and be offended.

If I want to walk with God I don't have the right to be offended.  How can I hold onto this hurt when Jesus has forgiven me of so much?

I needed to ask myself two questions,  "What will it cost me to obey God?"  and "What will is cost me to not obey God?"

When I asked myself those two questions, it became obvious that no matter what it takes, I needed to obey God.  

Lysa Terkeurst puts it this way in What Happens When Women Say Yes to God:

"We need not fear what our disobedience will cause to happen in our life.  We should only fear what our disobedience will cause us to miss."  pg. 45

Yes, obeying God will cost something.  It will cost us our will, our way, and our fleshly wants.

However, disobedience will cause us to miss out on God's best in our lives.  It will cost us to miss His blessings.  It will also rob us of our Kingdom rights as heirs in Christ--His gifts of joy and peace.

Radical obedience is always worth the cost.  The cost of not obeying is always more than what it will cost to obey.

Let's obey with radical obedience not just in the big life altering decisions, but also in the daily decisions.   For it is those daily decisions that make up a life surrendered to Him.   

Lord, help us to live a life of radical obedience.  Help us to hear your voice and choose to obey even when it doesn't make sense, even when it is hard.  When it is beyond ourselves, I pray we would lean on You to carry us through.  I pray that we would die to ourselves daily and live a life surrendered to You and Your will.  Oh Father, all of this is beyond ourselves.  We desperately need you to live this life of radical obedience and I pray we would by Your power in us.  We love you.  In Jesus' Name, Amen.   

  

 







12 comments:

  1. Thank you for this post! Very encouraging and eye opening :)

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  2. Love how eloquently you wrote this!

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  3. Thank you so much for sharing your heart in this post! I love your point about costs - it's always going to cost something, but the investment we make - of our time, talents or treasures - will always be worth it when we're following His will!

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  4. Thank you for this encouraging post! How important it is to be obedient in both the big and small things.

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  5. Wonderful post! The cost of disobedience is ALWAYS higher - no matter how high the cost of obeying.

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  6. "For it is those daily decisions that make up a life surrendered to Him." -beautifully summarized. Your post reminds me of the parable of the bags of god in Matthew 25, and just maybe the one given 5 bags of gold had made those daily decisions to live surrendered to God.

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  7. Beautiful post! obeying is always worth it, no matter what!!! Following viz blog hop, come visit my page! coloradoblessedmom.blogspot.com

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  8. Thank you for your post. It gave me some more to think about.

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  9. Sue, I love when you wrote: "It is those everyday mundane decisions of obedience that make up a life surrendered to God." I also really like: I needed to ask myself two questions, "What will it cost me to obey God?" and "What will is cost me to not obey God?" You have this way of saying so simply, yet powerfully what it is we need to do, and I love reading your blogs for that reason. I know that I will always go away from here with a clear applicable step for improving my walk with God.

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  10. Such an encouragement when you hear the story of those that obey. Your post is terrific! Thanks for sharing with us! (Small Group Leader)

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  11. Sue, I love this message. I so often think of the "big things" I must surrender, but in reality it's the "little things" that are holding me back. I struggle desperately with unforgiveness and anger towards things that were done to me in the past. Your post reminds me that when I don't surrender these things, then I'm not being obedient! Thank you!! :-)

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  12. Thank you all for the wonderful comments! So encouraging! So thankful these words blessed you today! Thank you for stopping by today! <3 Love, Sue

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