Obedience is not a “No;” it's His best “Yes!"

 John 13:17 “If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.”

Obedience can be an intimidating word. Depending on our upbringing and other influences from our early life, it may invoke different emotions.

For some, it conjures up thoughts of harsh, and pointless rules that seemed overwhelming and unfair instead of life-giving and fulfilling.

For others, it may have been a lack of intimacy, a sense of feeling unloved, and never feeling good- enough or measuring up.

Yet for many of us, the word itself feels like a threat to our desire for independence and it goes against our need for self-reliance and self-sufficiency.

But the kind of obedience that our good, loving, God requires—

is neither legalistic nor lacking in affection.

Although it places needed boundaries and demands on us—as in, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me” (as we are instructed in Matt. 16:24)

You see, each bit of instruction He gives is born out of the tenderness of His heart toward us and His desire to steer us toward His best for our lives.

Obedience is not a “no;” it is actually His best “yes”.

His grace leads us to freedom, wholeness, and health. It opens us up to His blessings.

The irony of obedience is it may require real sacrifice from us, while somehow leading to blessings and incomparable provision.

You see -

   • It binds us while concurrently loosing us.

 

   • It holds us tightly while also letting us go.

 

   • It redirects us only to replenish and renew us.

 

   • It restrains us while simultaneously releasing us.

 

   • It limits us while also opening up possibility.

 

Without our intentional surrender to the Lord...we cannot experience the benefits that surrender brings.

We must intentionally pursue obedience.

If left to our flesh’s tendencies toward rebellion, we will live in a consistent state of resistance toward God and His ways.

But if we (literally) plan to obey, we put ourselves in position to purposefully hear what the Lord wants from us, it’s only then we will experience the supernatural joy of following Him.

To help you understand this concept...

If you ever experienced trying to get out the door in the morning for school or work while wrangling with toddlers or even teenagers, in order for this to happen... With everyone dressed and fed and in one piece, you know that this involves some planning, it takes a strategy. Otherwise its nothing but a recipe for chaos and frustration.

And as any mom knows – Nothing would get accomplished during your morning routine without a plan. Having a spur of the moment, flying-by-the-seat-of-our-pants routine would invite nothing but mayhem.

Now let’s apply this same logic to something even more important than a mom’s sanity on a weekday morning.

So, remember that key I shared in my previous video. The key of surrendered obedience.

Because if you desire to use your key of surrender and obedience...what you need is a plan.

We aren’t haphazard with a lot of the things we think is important in life: our health, our retirement plan, our monthly calendar of appointments. 

We even enlist others to help us stay on track with some of those things—help we’re sometimes willing to pay for!

So, what about our commitment to being spiritually aligned with the God of the universe and with how He wants to direct our hearts?

If we don’t put an intentional resolve and strategic course of action for following Him in place, we’re basically leaving it up in the air, susceptible to the flighty whims of our circumstances and feelings. There’s simply too much eternal treasure at stake for that.

Psalm 105:4 “Seek and deeply long for the Lord and His strength [His power, His might]; Seek and deeply long for His face and His presence continually.”