Our Hopeful Race

By: Joanne Viola

Obedience does not come easily to us. All one needs to do is spend time with a toddler and perhaps take note of how many times one needs to say , “No, no”. Trust me it is often!

Two quotes crossed my path within a 24 hour period of time. Let me share …

“Believing in the gospel of Jesus Christ and obeying God’s Word is the only way we can experience true and lasting positive transformation.” (Kate Motaung, Five Minute Friday)

The quote was in my thoughts for much of the day, forming an equation in my mind:

Believing + Obeying = True + Positive Transformation

Obedience is not easy because we want what we want, or we think we know better, or we don’t trust the one telling us what we need to do. None of which are good or valid reasons.

Somehow we think if we obey, we are going to miss out on something. We feel like we are being boxed into doing something we don’t want to do.

Perhaps we need to change our impression of “obedience”:

“For obedience is not a stodgy plodding in the ruts of religion, it is a hopeful race toward God’s promises.” (Eugene Peterson, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction, page 168)

Obedience births a hope in God’s promises because we know God is a covenant-keeping God. He always keeps His promises.

In Deuteronomy 28, we read:

“If you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully keep all his commands that I am giving you today,
the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the world.
You will experience all these blessings if you obey the Lord your God.” (verses 1-2, NLT)

This section in Deuteronomy spells out the ways God would reward obedience. As blessings are received, our faith increases for we gain experiential knowledge of the character of God. 

We obey because
God is good and
God is faithful.
He is a covenant-keeping God!

Photo by Josh Gordon on Unsplash