Obeying God: A Relationship Found in Truth Not Feelings

We live in a world so driven by selfish ambition, comfort and personal preference that the whole idea of obedience to another will outside of our own feels utterly foreign to our human experience. The very word obedience often makes people cringe. It somehow creates a mental association with the idea of losing our personhood, forfeiting our own wants and shriveling into a non-entity that exists to do another’s bidding. This might sound a bit extreme but really stop and think about it. As children, didn’t the very words “Obey your mommy & daddy” immediately make you want to rebel and run to do the very opposite? Our human nature is born into rebellion. It is counter-intuitive to follow what someone else wants or asks because it is so hard wired in us to do what we want to do.

I remember a few of the power struggles with my parents growing up when I had the chutzpah to say “I don’t want to” or “I don’t feel like it” when asked to do something. I quickly learned that “wanting to” or “feeling like it” and doing it were two separate things and they had little connection to each other when it came down to obeying instructions. But in other areas like what I wanted to wear or eat I was allowed some personal choice and the right to say “I don’t want to wear that” or “I don’t like beets.”

Personal preference is allowed in decisions where a right/wrong has not been established. There was nothing wrong with wanting to wear a yellow shirt or have a certain vegetable choice over another. There wasn’t a right or wrong at stake here…it was left up to my personal preference as a little girl trying to assert personal decision making ability and learn what I liked/didn’t like. It was only when there was an instruction to do or not do something that going against it became an obedience issue.

There’s nothing wrong with a 7 year old riding a bike up and down their sidewalk on a quiet sunny day when they are given the boundaries of the riding limits. Staying between the Jones’ house and the big oak tree at the end of the street is a marker–a guidepost to frame an activity and give it a safe realm of enjoyment. There is no wrong done until that boundary is violated and the adventurous 7 year old decides to bike beyond the point of the safe zone which then becomes a disobedience issue.

Romans 5:13 explains that there is no sin without a law to make something wrong. If there were no speed limit sign then no one would ever get a ticket for driving 80 mph because there was no instruction or law to set a limit on speed and enforce penalty for those who go over it. So without a law, there is not a way to define what sin is because sin is by definition the action or behavior committed outside the boundary of a law. This is what makes it sin in the first place.

G-d set up the entire universe on laws & instructions. He put boundaries around everything in His creation. The sun and moon rise and set the same way every 24 hours. They are in perfect order and set the boundaries of day and night in our solar system. You’ll never look up at 2:30 in the afternoon and see the sun and moon bouncing around in the sky or colliding into each other. This would be outside of G-d’s design and the way He ordered creation. There are size and space boundaries. There are land boundaries. All things are set and designed to remain within a certain framework but they have ultimate freedom within that particular framework. Fish, whales and sharks are confined to water dwelling but have complete freedom to move and live anywhere in that ocean that they so desire. They have boundless freedom within the boundaries of their water world.

This probably seems quite elementary up to this point but let’s carry this principle over into a relationship with our heavenly Father. G-d set up boundaries for our human lives in the same way he set up boundaries for His creation and the planet life of the world you and I are currently sitting on. He gave instructions for the human race to keep. G-d’s instructions are already set and recorded in His word so let scripture teach you what is right/wrong.

Because there are set boundaries and instructions then we know that sin is trespassing outside of the framework for life that G-d gave because apart from a law there is no sin so where law is present, sin can be defined. What very commonly happens however is that we treat obeying G-d as an option on the ala carte menu of our lives and employ our personal preferences to pick and choose that which we want to keep and abide by. But personal preference has no jurisdiction where G-d’s laws and instructions are present. He created us with free will and personal choice. He has given us free reign to use our personal preferences and make autonomous choices in our lives. We can choose where we want to live, what kind of career to pursue, who we want to marry, what color to paint the dining room, what car we want to drive. We have a myriad of everyday choices and decisions that we can use our own free will to make. The only thing that becomes a sin issue is whether we have enacted our personal preference to override His set instructions.

The key to obedience is trust. Without a trust in the one that is asking you to do something there is no allegiance in our hearts to follow through on it. When we have complete trust in relationship with the Father then we can rest in the fact that He 100% has our best interest at heart and that ultimate good comes from following His instructions. Resisting them however breeds the opposite: confusion, shame, guilt, rebellion, and personal destruction.

Part of our aversion to following what G-d instructs is that we ultimately don’t trust Him and somehow convince ourselves that we have come up with a better way. We have somewhere along the way embraced a mis-belief about who He is, His character, His motives and how He sees us. When we allow mis-beliefs about who G-d is to creep into our belief system it chips away at our ability to trust Him. We will often then choose to rebel and fall back on self-reliance and self-protection and put guards up because we have decided that trusting G-d is not safe. See why what we believe about G-d is so critical? See what it’s of utmost importance that our beliefs about Him be based in what is true? When we are in a safe, trusting relationship with our heavenly Father we have no fear of following His instructions because we trust the blessing that comes with that obedience. We are fully free to dance within the boundaries of our playground and know that He will take care of what lies outside of it. G-d’s protection is strongest within G-d’s boundaries. When we go outside of them and “go play in traffic” can He still protect us? Yes, and in His mercy He often does protect us and come to our rescue but mercy was designed to cover us in our areas of ignorance–not give us a free pass to willfully rebel.

We must align our beliefs about G-d with who He says He is in His word to truly trust and obey Him with our whole heart. One reason I believe that many rebel against G-d and keeping His instructions is because they believe He is just like their earthly father. They distrust their father’s love, his motives, his actions and make a direct link to the heavenly Father in that belief system. But G-d is not flawed. He has no area of imperfection in Him. He is not a dictator but He is a supremely righteous ruler. When we get a hold of how perfect G-d’s justice is and trust Him lead our lives, there is always peace, security and safety in following His will and instruction.

In closing, one very important distinction I want to make is that complete, unquestionable obedience is only to G-d and not to people. A child needs to sometimes understand why they are being asked to do something in order to build greater trust in their parents and as adults, we are subject to the requests our employers make of us. However, obeying the whims and demands of others can very easily venture into the ground of abuse and G-d does not desire us to be abused or mistreated. So please use discernment when someone is asking you to do something for them. You are not everyone’s subject and this post is specifically addressing obeying G-d and what He calls us to do. It isn’t to give undue power and authority to people to lord order others and demand obedience. It’s isn’t license for mistreatment or abuse.

Taking Action:
1) What are G-d’s actual instructions? What are we really called to keep? I challenge you to remove the superimposed lens of others’ scriptural interpretations and read the Word of G-d with your own eyes and heart. Read scripture as if you were picking it up for the very first time and know nothing about it and ask the Father to illuminate truth to you by His Spirit as you read and He will show you exactly what His instructions are and how to keep them. His mercy and grace are there for when you miss it but our desire should still be to keep His instructions even though we don’t do it perfectly. The Father sent His Son to be our Messiah, to fulfill the law perfectly so that in the areas where we miss it His completed work covers us.

2) What are some areas where you recognize that you enact your personal preferences and override G-d’s instructions? Are there areas you have become aware of that you can repent (do a heart turn) about?

2) What are some mis-beliefs you have had about the Father which have affected your ability to trust Him fully and follow His instructions?