What God wants – what He has always wanted – was our obedience. This daily devotional reviews what that obedience is and isn’t and the fine line in between.
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.
God knew before He created us that we would be disobedient. God was always planning on forgiving us. He knows we will keep on sinning while we are in these earthly bodies. But we have to ask forgiveness (How Do Disciples Crave Righteousness?).
Before mankind are children of God, they are sinners. The main issue was Adam and Eve’s disobedience. They did not submit their will and lives to God. Satan was there to nudge them into disobedience. The choice was all theirs. Satan may be sneaky in tempting us, but his objective is deadly. He wants us to remain spiritually dead. It comes down to sin. 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).
What Is Obedience
God is Sovereign. He can set expectations on our obedience to His laws and commandments (Aren’t We All Children of God?).
God asked Adam and Eve for one thing – obedience. The Scriptures tell us He put only one restriction on them. Yep, they had one job. One job. And they messed it up. That mess up is called sin (Completion from the Cross).
We have to have a strong conviction in God to deliberately choose obedience. We get that by seeking God (Will There Be a Judgment Day?).
We have to let God’s Truth change us. It has to eliminate the sin in our lives and replace it with obedience (The Spirit of Truth).
We have to get to the righteousness by going through the process of sanctification. However, sanctification is accomplished through obedience. That is doing the do’s and not doing the don’ts (Faith as a Value).
Righteousness is the result of faith and obedience (What Is Righteousness?).
God has to see evidence that we have chosen Him. He wants to make sure we aren’t just buying fire insurance. That evidence is our obedience (How Do Disciples Crave Righteousness?).
God is looking for obedience, submission, and service. God is looking for a change in heart (The Nominal Disciple).
We get the obedience to a heart level so that we work on a pure, godly life (Wisdom Produces Compassion).
If obedience to God’s laws is going to get to our heart levels, we have to open our hearts and accept it all the way in us so that it changes us. Yes, that means repetition so it will get through our hard heads and hard hearts (Getting Obedience to the Heart Level).
We can’t get obedience to the heart level until we get the Scriptures there (Why Should We Study Scriptures?).
Obedience is supposed to build the character. The character obeys because we are imitating Him (What Is the Relationship between Righteousness and Wisdom?).
Obedience requires discipline (How Do Disciples Mourn?).
Self-discipline is important because God doesn’t water down the do’s and don’ts. Yes, He knows we won’t have perfect obedience until we get to heaven (Salvation in a Nutshell).
Obedience calls for action (What Is Obedience?).
Obedience can only be attained when human passions can be controlled (Temperance as a Virtue).
Shouldn’t we go to the Master to learn about obedience? (God Teaches Us Obedience).
See Also
What Obedience Isn’t
We sure didn’t expect Him to respond to our disobedience with designing the Plan of Salvation (Is Election Really Mercy?).
We don’t need to do the do’s and not do the don’ts for salvation. However, obedience is a big part of the sanctification road (Salvation in a Nutshell).
Obedience is not easy. Satan wants us to think we have no say in the matter. But we do — it is called free will (What Is the Relationship between Righteousness and Obedience?).
Obeying isn’t as hard as Satan makes it out to be (Isn’t It Impossible to be Obedient?).
If others can withstand the temptation and be obedient, so can we (Isn’t It Impossible to be Obedient?).
We don’t get a free pass on sin just because we are disciples. We have to actively be trying to withstand Satan’s temptations and live in obedience to God (How Do Disciples Mourn?).
We don’t get to judge or pick and choose which laws to follow. God has called us to obedience (How Do We Keep the Sabbath Holy?).
We shouldn’t mourn because God is correcting us because of disobedience. God corrects us so that we can change to be more like Him (How Do Disciples Mourn?).
If we are not living as we should, we don’t have peace. This is because the disobedience brings punishment (What Are the Fruits of Righteousness?).
God had told Adam he couldn’t eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for he would die if he did (Gen. 2: 16-17). But Satan being Satan, He twisted that to make disobedience attractive (Completion from the Cross).
What does our disobedience and false profession tell others about the kingdom of God? It sends the message that what God requires is not important (What Do You Mean All Disciples Won’t Get into Heaven?).
See Also
The Fine Line of Obedience
Our attitude shows how much we are truly submitting to God. Yes, it starts out with obedience, but we are not going to be 100% obedient in this life. (That doesn’t give us license to sin, but it means we don’t have to beat ourselves up after every sin.) It all boils down to how much are we truly committed to God (How Should We Handle God’s Discipline?).
Being a good person does not make us closer to God — unless we have made the decision to accept Jesus as our Savior and God as our Sovereign God. It isn’t about obedience. It is about a relationship (What Is Self-Discipline?).
Yes, God wants the obedience, but even more, He wants the relationship. He wants us to be His (Characteristics of Disciples’ Lives).
When we show our trust and obedience in God, we are also exhibiting God’s goodness. We are changed by trusting and obeying Him — changed to be more like Him, including exhibiting the goodness (Goodness as a Virtue).
We’ve got to take obedience to the next level and do it. We can’t just hear it (God Teaches Us Obedience).
It isn’t that we know God is God and that we are being tempted. We have to say and believe. God gives us the opportunity to confess our sins — and confirm our obedience to Him (Who Was Balaam?).
We should be reverent in prayer and in obedience (Godliness as a Virtue).
Duty, self-control, obedience, patience, perseverance — it is all about trying to please God (Love and Obedience: The Last Two Steps in Salvation).
Being Gentile did not preclude them from gaining God’s mercy. Instead, the world was blessed because of the Jew’s disobedience/unbelief (Is Election Really Mercy?).
Boldness is needed to foster obedience. I mean, when Satan is flinging stuff at us right and left, doesn’t boldness play a big part in choosing to follow God’s laws and commandments? (How Does Boldness Help Consistency?).
We may be asked to do things that challenge our beliefs because we need to align them with God’s. Obedience is the key (What Is Missions?).
See Also
The Practice of Obedience
We have to be practicing obedience to God’s Will. How do we learn the most? Many of us are hands-on learners. You can talk us to death, and we think we have a clue. But it isn’t until we get in the lab or in the project where things really start clicking. Where is our lab with God? In the middle of the trials (God Teaches Us Obedience).
We have to be consistently following His Will in prayerful obedience (Good versus Evil).
We start out small in the obedience area. That may be because the trust area is low. We trust God and we obey. That feels pretty good. It boosts our confidence. Here comes another temptation — a little more involved this time. Repeat — trust, obey, confidence. Pretty soon, we have a good foundation. We know that however hard and scary the temptation is, God won’t leave us and will help us through it (God Teaches Us Obedience).
We need to bag our pride and mourn disobedience (How Do Disciples Mourn?).
We can work on our relationship with God. We can work on our obedience. We can work on our witness (Godliness as a Virtue).
However long Jesus takes in returning should have no bearing on our obedience. We need to remain obedient always (Faithful and Unfaithful Stewards).
Divine Intervention Regarding Obedience
- Jesus came as an example of the obedience for which God was looking. We needed Someone to model our relationship with God (One God and the Trinity).
- Jesus always obeyed God, just as we are called to do (What Is the Relationship between Righteousness and Obedience?).
- Neither did Jesus force God to forgive us, even when we don’t ask. Nor did He secure a reward for obedience. We have to ask for forgiveness. We have to obey (Did Jesus or His Blood Redeem Us).
- Jesus is the Judge. He has been designated Judge as a reward for His obedience in becoming the Sacrifice for our sins. When judgment day comes, He will judge the living and the dead (Forever Worshiping Our Lord).
- Jesus still had to ask God to glorify Him. He didn’t think He deserved it for His obedience. He didn’t think He was entitled because He had given up His life (What Was Jesus’ Mission?).
- The Jews just didn’t get what Jesus was getting at. Jesus was looking at addressing the death part — by focusing on the obedience part (Jesus the Liberator).
- We are Jesus’ reward for His obedience (Comprehending the Effects of Salvation).
Rewards of Obedience
- God helps and blesses those who submit to Him in obedience. We have to focus on Him, not on ourselves and the world (Does God Help Those Who Help Themselves?).
- I think the gift of the Holy Spirit is God’s choice. However, He will reward us for our obedience with even more gifts (Witnessing as God Calls).
- Fruits of righteousness are the rewards being holy and righteous: eternal life, peace, access to Sovereign God, and joy. All of that is predicated on our obedience (The Rewards of Faithfulness).
- It’s about obedience. We will be blessed when we totally give our lives over to Him (Rewards for Focusing on God).
- Solomon told us that we would be rewarded for obedience. He was now telling us that disobedience would be disciplined (How Should We Handle God’s Discipline?).
See Also
Obedience and the Churchy Words
- Belief, repentance, and obedience to the gospel cannot be separated. Baptism is obedience (Is Baptism a Part of Salvation?).
- Faith produces works that are the result of our obedience. In turn, those works show our faith to others (How the Righteousness of God Filters to Us).
- God is interested in our commitment. Yes, He wants the obedience, but He doesn’t want us to make that obedience a work. There is nothing we can do or not do to make us righteous. We have to be committed to God to trust that He will make us righteous (Peace Gained through Prayer).
- The only way we gain salvation is through obedience to the Truth (Jesus the Liberator).
- Peace is a result of obedience. No obedience, no peace (God’s Law Creates Peace).
See Also
What has struck me in this review is that we have to consciously choose to be obedient. It is our free will to make that decision.
But we need to choose to obey because belief, repentance, and obedience cannot be separated. We can’t say we believe and not obey. We can’t repent and still disobey.
Father. You want our obedience. We want to be obedient. Help us to follow Your laws and commandments. Amen.
What do you think?
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