It comes down to obeying God. This daily devotional reviews how we obey and disobey Him – as we are given a choice on what we want to do.
Devotions in the Self-Discipline Review series
All year, we’ve been looking at self-discipline. We looked at self-discipline as the operational plan for self-control because it talked about improvement.
We are reviewing everything and hopefully putting all of the building blocks together. What I am doing is going through all of the devotions for the year and pulling out the nuggets.
I am formatting this as a glossary page. If I already have one, I will combine them later.
When I pulled the nuggets on obedience, I got enough for a complete devotion. But I realized that I wasn’t pulling the nuggets on obey. When I pulled those, they also were an entire devotion.
God created us, and mankind disobeyed Him two chapters later. But God didn’t turn His back on us (The Promise of Forgiveness).
How We Obey
God wants all of us to turn back and obey Him (Being Content Because We Are Godly).
We are to obey God and ask forgiveness for being sinners – and we then are purified (Who Can Learn God’s Truth?).
We are all to obey because God tells us to do so. What is this all about? It is about submitting to the authority figure. God wants us to do that. Do what they tell us to do. Don’t talk back. Don’t do the opposite of what they say. Obey (An Unjust World).
When we confess God as Sovereign Lord, we have to submit to His Will. We have to obey what He tells us to do and not to do (What Do You Mean All Disciples Won’t Get into Heaven?).
We need to crucify the sin in our lives. We need to put it to death so that we submit to God and obey Him (How Are We Debtors to God?).
We’ve got to obey God’s directions — even if we don’t fully understand them (Isaiah’s Message about the Baby).
God wants us to repent. God wants our relationships with Him to be restored. In order to restore our relationship, we have to obey Him (What Happens When We Repent?).
God wants to use this stability we find in Him to grow closer to Him, increasing growth in godliness. He wants us to obey Him and serve Him (What Is Truth?).
We grow when we are obeying God – especially through trials. Obeying God means Satan has less and less influence over people (Spiritual Freedom).
We want to have a pure conscience — a conscience where we have not disobeyed God in any way. We want to work toward obeying Him completely (In Support of Widows).
As we cut out that sin and obey God’s laws and commandments, we begin to imitate Him. That changes our hearts so that our character is like His (What Is Truth?).
Because we love Him, we want to do what He wants us to do. We show that by spending time with Him in prayer and obeying His laws and commandments (Love and Obedience: The Last Two Steps in Salvation).
We have to turn. We have to repent and give up our love of sin – even our pet sin. We have to obey God’s laws and commandments (Comprehending Christ’s Love).
The laws show us God’s character. They show us how to imitate Him. If we obey the laws, we grow in holiness and righteousness (Where Is Jesus?).
When we are buried in the Word, we are keeping it fresh in our minds. We are looking for ways to obey God’s laws and commandment – and ways to not disobey God’s commandments (The Holy Spirit within Us).
If God gave the laws and commandments, He can judge if they have been obeyed or broken (God’s Judgment of Sin).
We need to obey God’s Word when He gives us instructions about worship. God is not interested in religion that is for show. He wants very much to have a relationship with us (Worshiping God the Right Way).
We choose what attitude we are going to exhibit. We want to choose an attitude pleasing to God. Obeying and submitting to Him is pleasing to Him (An Unjust World).
We have to make sure we are obeying God, not following the worldview (Jesus the Liberator).
We are to obey through love (Asking for Prayers).
We have to be willing to work through the tough times as well as the good times. We have to always be willing to lose our lives in His name. We should want to obey and lose our lives rather than disobey and keep it (Asking for Prayers).
The promptings of the Holy Spirit. It does help us to do a better job of obeying God (How Does God Adopt Us?).
We have to remember that God’s Will is that we obey His laws and commandments. We need to focus on our eternal life, not this life. To find how that specifically translate to our lives, we must seek God (Asking for Prayers).
We are called to obey God. That directive starts at conversion, not when we get to Heaven (What Is Purity to a Disciple?).
If we can’t listen to our parents, how are we going to obey God? (Instructing Our Children).
See Also
How We Disobey
Before He even created us — before we even disobeyed — God designed the Plan of Salvation. He knew we would mess us and wrote Plan A accordingly (The Foundation of the Church).
We needed redeemed because Adam and Eve chose not to obey God. This allowed sin into the world (What Is Election?).
The second mind-boggling item is how deep God’s love is for us. Even though we willfully disobeyed Him, He doesn’t just turn His back on us. He still loves us (Comprehending Christ’s Love).
It is God’s invitation. We are the ones who disobeyed Him, but He is the one inviting us back into the fold (What Happens When We Repent?).
We disobey God when we don’t follow His laws and commandments. We disobey when He tells us to move somewhere, do something, or don’t do something – and we don’t, don’t, or do (Truth in Freedom).
We benefit when we obey the law, whether we are circumcised or not. If we disobey the law, we can lose what we have (The Nominal Disciple).
If the Israelites wanted to worship in the temple, they needed to worship outside the temple by obeying God’s laws and commandments (How Does Dedication Help Consistency?).
We are called to obey all the laws and commandments, not just the ones we think are still relative (Did Jesus or His Blood Redeem Us?).
We will not incite God’s wrath when we are obeying Him. That means we need to know what His laws and commandments are. To find out what those are, we need to seek God (Old Testament Reasons for Judgment).
We can’t just say we are disciples and not live that way. We have to obey God’s laws and commandments (What Is Religious Freedom).
Denying that we sin is not repentance. Asking God for salvation without changing our character and lifestyle is not repentance. Picking and choosing which of God’s laws and commandments we are going to obey — and which we are going to continue to break — is not repentance (A Sincere Acceptance of Salvation).
If we sin, it is because we have chosen to disobey God. There isn’t anyone else we can blame. It is us (The Enticement of Sin).
God does not commanded us to let people disobey Him — we are to try to help them see His love for them. Our disciple’s job description says that our duties are to proclaim His gospel and make disciples (How Are Disciples Supposed to Treat People?).
Satan is going to try to capture us so that we don’t obey God. If we are disobeying God, he doesn’t have to go after us (Spiritual Freedom).
We like to think that, after conversion, believers won’t be judged. We will if we abandon our profession of faith — if we willfully choose to disobey (Will There Be a Judgment Day?).
Whatever the sin, the root is our sinful nature against our spiritual nature. We are disobeying God’s laws and commandments regardless if we are lying, stealing, or murdering someone (Will Everyone Have a Judgment Day?).
We need help because it is in our human nature to disobey God. Ever since Adam and Eve sinned and Satan has been ruling this world, we’ve chosen to be independent and in control of our own lives (The Holy Spirit within Us).
Completely. If we aren’t completely obeying God, we aren’t completely submitting to God (What Do You Mean All Disciples Won’t Get into Heaven?).
Part of the reason was they nominal disciples was because they were very boastful. Another part was they thought that being God’s chosen people gave them a pass where they didn’t have to obey God’s laws and commandments (The Nominal Disciple).
See Also
We Are Given the Choice
Just as God isn’t a dictator in making us worship Him, He is not a dictator in making us serve Him. He allows us to choose. Oh, there are consequences when we choose to not obey God. It is still our choice (How Are God’s Messengers Supposed to Respond?).
What we get to choose is whether we are going to obey God or not (Will There Be a Judgment Day?).
We need to choose to obey God. The book of our lives will be read one day (The Reward of Faithfulness).
When the trials come, that is going to be our test. That is when we will have to make up our minds if we are truly going to follow God and obey His laws and commandments (Are We Proactive or Reactive?).
Let’s roost on stumbling blocks a second. A stumbling block is anything that tempts someone be disobedient to God. Let’s think of it this way. A trial gets dropped in our lap. Doubts can be a huge stumbling block. Misunderstanding what God’s Word actually says is right up there too. Another toe-stubber is our stubbornness in giving up our pet sin. If we love God’s laws and commandments, we want to obey them. So when the drop occurs, we are ready for it. Not only are we ready for the drop, we know all the nuances associated with the law .
It is normal to have doubts. We tend to think of that as a bad thing. Not having the fear of falling short means it doesn’t mean much to us. I read this to say we aren’t doubting that God is Sovereign Lord. We aren’t doubting our salvation. We are doubting whether we are loving as God does. We are questioning whether we are obeying Him in everything we are supposed to. The intent there is to make sure our relationships with the Sovereign God are strong. God wants that (How Are Disciples Supposed to be Rested?).
Divine Intervention in Obeying
Jesus accused Satan of being a murderer and a liar. Well, he did murder mankind when he succeeded in getting Adam and Eve to disobey. We are spiritually dead. He accomplished it through a lie (Acting Free).
Jesus glorified God in all He did. He not only obeyed God’s laws and commandments, but He also taught his disciples — and us — to do so also. He did this by submitting to God’s Will, even when it cost Him His life (What Was Jesus’ Mission (Part 1)).
God’s grace does not preclude Him from requiring us to obey His laws and commandments. It doesn’t mean He just have to give us the good stuff and not require anything from us. God is not the God of entitlement (Will There Be a Judgment Day?).
God does not owe us anything — even if we are made in His image. We disobeyed Him. We let sin into this world. He didn’t have to design the plan of salvation to restore our relationships with Him (Watch the Company We Keep).
See Also
We have to be obeying God. We have to show evidence of changed lives. We have to be on the Sanctification Road (Will There Be a Judgment Day?).
Father. We choose You we choose to obey Your laws and commandments. Help us to do that. Amen.
What do you think?
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