The benefits of obedience

Last night at our weekly Navigator meeting we were privileged to have Jon Sanborne (a local pastor-turned-businessman) as our speaker, talking about the principle and practice of obedience. Although it was encouraging as well, tt was definitely very challenging for me! How much do I intentionally seek to obey the commands of God given in His word? How often do I opt to obey the ones that are easy for me, while ignoring the rest? How frequently do I submit to my emotions instead of surrendering to His law?

An interesting point he made is that while we ought to obey God because He is God and we are His creatures and children, there are also many benefits to that obedience. It helps us grow closer to God, deeper in intimacy with Him, as we conform our behaviors and attitudes to His, and as we meditate more on Him and live out what He desires from us. Very often, He will reward our obedience in some way - if not on earth, still we will be storing up treasure in heaven and winning a crown to lay at His feet. In addition, our obedience to God is a powerful way to make a difference in our world. If we want to change situations or influence people, the best way is to obey God wholeheartedly, drastically, and radically - to truly obey and not just obey whenever we deem fit.

One of the benefits he mentioned that really stood out to me was stability. If we obey God, we build ourselves a character that can withstand the troubles and storms of life, and will not be tossed to and fro by doubts or circumstances or fleeting passions. This kind of stability is something I have been deeply desiring for a while now, as I've seen my emotions, behavior, and attitude go up and down like roller coasters at even very small and insignificant triggers. So it seems that the way to become a more stable person is to stop trying to make myself more stable - to stop making my own improvement my goal - and to instead seek to follow God. To obey Him completely, to know Him intimately, to walk in the way He has established - that ought to be my goal. And I can trust Him to take care of everything else.