Obedience

1 Samuel 15:22 New King James Version (NKJV)

²² So Samuel said:

One of the first lessons I learnt as a new christian was Obedience is better than sacrifice. I think my willingness to be obedient to God was my saving grace in my walk with God.  I messed up so much as a new believer in Christ and know that my willingness to repent and be obedient to the call He put on my heart put me in a special place in His heart (I would like to think so).  God never looked away from me; he was always there to pick me up.  When I was on the floor he picked me up and wiped away the tears.  I am so special to God that he holds me in the palm of His hand and I learnt obedience in so many ways. I think that I first started to really desire what God wanted was when our Pastor was choosing leadership in the Church and I was so jealous that they didn’t consider me.  And I spoke to my Pastor about it and he said that I still had a lot to learn.

One day I was in there kitchen and another lady in the church was there and I was telling her that I wish that I could have everything sorted out that I don’t have to wait 2 years or however long it took me to get my life sorted out, I wanted everything to be a quick fix.  Well she quote the scripture obedience is better than sacrifice.  At that time it made sense and I can’t remember the whole conversation that day.  But what I got out of it that day was no matter what I went through as long as I obeyed the Lord I would be okay.  You see God was starting to work in me that no matter what I gave up for the Lord whatever I sacrificed wasn’t as important as being obedient to the Lord.  My Pastor and his wife also made obedience to God easy.  Whenever I strayed from the truth they would rebuke me approach me when I sinned.  My willingness to repent from my sin made it easier for my healing.

You see, the most important lesson of all is that Jesus Christ died on the cross for our sins. Your sin is already forgiven. So when you approach the cross in repentance, you must know in your heart that your Father in Heaven has already forgiven you and your repentance restores the relationship to Him.  God is eagerly waiting for us to be in relationship with Him and our Sin takes us out that relationship.  It is not God pulling away from us, but us pulling away from Him.

Whatever God puts in Your heart, be obedient to Him.  He will guide you and make your paths straight. Forgive others quickly. Repent as soon as you have been convicted of sin.  If you are in the sin and are convicted, even if you are still sinning repent.  Be obedient.

Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. – Matthew 7:21

Through him we received grace and apostleship to call all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith for his name’s sake. – Romans 1:5

And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love. – 2 John 1:6