O generation, see the word of the Lord! Have I been a wilderness to Israel, or a land of darkness? Why do My people say, ‘We are lords; we will come no more to You’? Jeremiah 2:31
The JFB commentary says that it is better to translate the phrase “we are lords” as “we ramble at large.” Behind most castings off of the Lord is this desire to be unrestrained and unhindered in the pursuit of our desires. They didn’t see the Lord as One who loved them or protected them or provided for them, but One who thwarted them in their quest for pleasure.
“We are lords. We are in control. We don’t need You anymore, for we are quite capable of taking care of ourselves, thank You very much.” This is what their actions said to God.
And many times, so do ours today.
I pray that daily the Holy Spirit would enable me to submit more completely to the lordship of Jesus Christ in my life.
Recently I spent some time on vacation. I spent hours and hours in prayer as I looked out onto the water. So peaceful and tranquil, calming to the soul. But sometimes a boat would pass at full speed, ignoring the “no wake zone” signs, and the water would be churned into a tumultuous froth, soon lapping at and spilling over the barriers along the shore.
As the Lord had been dealing with me for several days on the issue of disobedience and it’s destructive effects, the churning of the water seemed to mirror the troubled waters of a disobedient soul. Churning, surging against boundaries, restless and unsettled. There is no peace to a disobedient believer.
As I tearfully reflected on these things, to my shame I realized that my own disobedience exposed a lack of trust in the Lord and my lack of the fear of the Lord. It is no small matter to disobey the Lord of the entire universe and Master of my soul. The more I thought on these things, the more grievous it became to me, until I thought I would rather do anything than disobey Him. And I wondered why I had not cared more to do what pleased Him than what pleased me. Now I understood the unrest that I could not shake. I was living in the wake zone.
Psalm 23 says that He leads me beside the still waters. This is the blessing of a life of obedience. Still waters are for the obedient. All others will live in the wake zone, continually turbulent, disturbed and pounding against the boundaries.
The Lord has required obedience of His people, but He has made an obedient life to be a glorious, serene life. When we can learn to trust that all His ways are good, and higher than our ways, and that Romans 8:28 is always true, then we will be those who experience the still waters of an obedient life.
I am a notorious to-do list maker. This is one of the ways I try to keep life under control. If I can put it on paper, I can control it. I like lists. I like them a lot.
I am particularly fond of lists in the Bible. For example, the 10 commandments. This works well for me because the expectations are clearly defined and success is measurable. It says don’t do it, I don’t do it, so I can put a check mark next to that one for the day. Reviewing my progress at the end of the day, I can either congratulate myself on a job well done, or resolve to try harder the next day.
However, I have found that this approach to a relationship with God has a tendency to lead to either a self-righteousness that disregards the true condition of the heart, or an overwhelming despair brought about by the realization that I can never successfully follow the list. Colossians 2:23 says that these regulations are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh. No value? None at all? Well then, what is a Type A personality to do?
A genuine faith requires dependence upon the Spirit of God to lead me in my obedience if it is to be a complete, whole hearted obedience. No lists which aid me in gauging my progress. I cannot be trusted to gauge my own progress for I cannot know my own heart. I am too prone to deceive myself in order to soothe my conscience and please my flesh. But the Holy Spirit relentlessly leads me into a depth of obedience beyond what I could ever find by way of a list.
Living by the Spirit many times seems harder. Instead of striking off with my list to get the job done (which is easy for me), I must now begin by waiting and listening. But the rewards of a Spirit led obedience, the depth of transformation it produces, is beyond compare.
So I will sacrifice the list and follow the still, small voice that leads me into a life that produces a harvest of fruitful obedience.
After the death of King Solomon as Rehoboam, his son, began to reign, Jeroboam rose up to oppose him and take the kingdom. Rehoboam was rightful heir to the throne of all Israel, so naturally he assembled an army to defend his throne and squelch this uprising.
But God sent a prophet to Rehoboam with these words, “Thus says the Lord, “You shall not go up nor fight against your brethren the children of Israel. Let every man return to his house, for this thing is from me.” How altogether amazing for God to send Rehoboam home without his kingdom. And equally amazing is Rehoboam’s response – “Therefore they obeyed the word of the Lord, and turned back, according to the word of the Lord.”
This seems so totally contrary to human nature. We all feel entitled to certain things. How much more would Rehoboam have felt entitled to this kingdom that was promised to the descendants of David? To refuse to even try to regain the kingdom seems an even greater appearance of weakness than to have tried and failed. Yet as soon as he knew this turn of events was from the Lord, he obeyed the Lord. I wonder how humiliating this event must have been for him.
Obedience is not always easy. Sometimes it’s downright painful. God will at times require you to turn loose of something you desperately want to keep, or to remain silent when everything within you is screaming to vindicate yourself, or let your “rights” get trampled in the dust leaving you to appear humiliated to those around you.
Are we willing to do the hard things that He requires? Can we die to our own desires when we are presented with a hard thing that is from the Lord? If we are not willing (and are not willing to be made willing) then we are really not His disciples. We are only fooling ourselves. A few moments of reflection on the awesome power and majesty of this God will convince us that we are the most pitiful of fools who do not obey Him. A few moments of reflection on Calvary will break our hearts for every time we have not obeyed Him. And one look into the face of Jesus will make us willing to give up everything we possess to obey Him.
From my very earliest days as a Christian I understood the value of obedience to God. Over the years I have come to understand it to an even greater degree.
I have been guilty of playing that oh so familiar Christian game – I can’t hear you God, lalalalala. You know the one? That when you are asking God for guidance on a particular issue and He’s showing you what to do, but then you pretend that you’re not sure if it’s Him or not, so you go ahead and do what you wanted to in the first place. Of course, feeling very spiritual about the whole thing because you did ask God.
And how about the almost laughable number of times we have sung “I surrender all” or “Where He leads me I will follow” only to go about our lives as though we are perfectly entitled to make decisions based solely on our own desires, with no thought of asking God because surely He wants us to be happy, right?
I would never dream of telling God that my Yes had conditions. But my actions tell Him. Loudly. It is not the servant who says yes who is obedient, but the one who lives yes.
Several years ago I was at a retreat and in an intense moment in the worship service the worship leader said, “God wants you to sign on the dotted line.” That phrase impacted me so powerfully that I’ve not forgotten it. No conditions, no limitations. Just obedience. What a radical idea. I’m thinking that’s probably what the Lord has intended from His people all along.
For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s. 1 Corinthians 6:20
CONCLUSION: It is time to find the joy of unconditional obedience
He is my Delight 