Obedience: understanding the principle of obedience.

Happy New Month! We thank God for letting us see the month of May! I am super excited for this month because God is awesome. For the month of May, we are focusing on Obedience. This is a very interesting topic for me because it's something I wouldn't say I struggled with personally but I had to really understand what it means to God. So join us at Masterpiece as we unravel this topic!

When I was coming up with this months post, I looked at the Bible and there are so many examples of obedience throughout. Obedience done well and disobedience, followed along with the consequences and or blessings. We see this all the way from the book of Genesis, when Eve ate the forbidden fruit, to Abraham almost sacrificing his promised son, to Jonah who ran away from God, to Mary and Joseph following Gods instructions. So if I was to talk about every event, you'd be reading a very lengthy essay, so instead we are going to focus on two particular situations.

Before we get to that, lets look at what obedience really means...

1. the condition or quality of being obedient

2. the act or an instance of obeying; dutiful or submissive behaviour

3. the authority vested in a Church or similar body

4. the collective group of persons submitting to this authority

Let's look at the first act of disobedience in the Bible, the most famous event. When Eve ate the forbidden fruit.

When we look at this scripture in Genesis chapter 3, we see that Eve fell into temptation and ate the forbidden fruit which led to great consequences that she probably underestimated.

We see in Genesis chapter 2 verse 16, God specifically told Adam that the fruit from the tree of The Knowledge of Good and Evil was forbidden because if he ate the fruit he would die. Then when God made Eve, the command still stood. However, Eve was tempted by the snake (Genesis 3:1-6).

I find that people often have this idea that Eve was one of the worst people in the Bible because she fell into temptation, ate the fruit and even persuaded Adam to eat it too. But disobedience is disobedience in Gods eyes. Whether you ate a fruit or stole something (breaking the ten commandments) at the end of the day you disobeyed which leads to consequences. We see that God then curses the earth. You can read in verses 13-19 to see what God said.

The reason I am talking about Eve is because how many times has God instructed you not to do something but you have fallen into temptation, underestimating the consequences of your actions? If Eve knew what the consequences of her actions would result to... Would she still have eaten the fruit? She knew that she would die if she ate the fruit but she didn't understand what that truly meant. The devil tries to twist the word of God, tries to tempt you into disobedience but if we have understanding, we wouldn't fall for his traps.

Sometimes curiosity of the unknown can be the worst trap to fall into, we don't always need to know all the answers. We need to trust God and remind yourself that He knows it all, therefore, we do not need to worry about the unknown.

As followers of Christ, when we obey God it is not just because we 'have' to but it is because we love God and we respect and trust who He is. Let's look at Abraham for example, one of the best examples in the Bible.

Abraham was promised a son at a very old age. God told him that he would make a nation out of his ancestry line. So Gods word soon came to pass, Abrahams wife Sarah, gave birth to a son. They named him Isaac. So Abraham loved his son very much, but God wanted to test Abraham to see if his heart was in the right place. So God told Abraham to sacrifice his son. You read that right, he literally told Abraham to sacrifice his promised son.

Genesis 22:2 "Take your son, your only son - yes Isaac, whom you love so much - and go to the land of Moriah. Go and sacrifice him as a burnt offering on one of the mountains, which I will show you."

Now Abraham could've packed his things and tried to run from God because who wants to sacrifice their son?! But Abraham trusted God. One of the key things here too is, he didn't tell his wife, he didn't tell anyone. He silently left with his son early in the morning. When God saw his obedience He blessed Abraham and the generations to come. He stopped Abraham from sacrificing his son and provided a ram for the sacrifice instead. (You can read about this in Genesis chapter 22)

When we receive an intruction from God, we sometimes tell everyone around us, but the devil can use anyone to tempt you to not obey Gods command. Everything you do is between you and God, we don't obey for mans glory but only to glorify the name of God.

So I encourage you today. If God has given you an intruction or laid something on your heart, trust in Him and obey His command! God will not leave you to work alone, He is with you throughout.

May God bless you.

Marlyse.