OBEDIENCE: BECAUSE WE LOVE HIM
What is our motive for obeying God? Do we obey Him because we have to or because we want to?
“If you love me, you will obey what I command,” Jesus tells His disciples (John 14:15, NIV).
The more we understand the depth of God’s love for us through His Son, Jesus, the more our obedience
will be a natural outpouring of our love for Him. When we become Christ-followers, having truly tasted
of His love for us, the grip of self will fade and we’ll turn our life’s goals and ambitions toward serving
this irresistible source of joy and fulfillment – for we could not do otherwise.
SEVERAL YEARS AGO, NIKE RAN A TELEVISION ADVERTISEMENT THAT REMAINS ONE OF THE ALL-TIME
FAVORITES. THE AD PICTURED MICHAEL JORDAN. PERHAPS THE GREATEST BASKETBALL PLAYER WHO
HAS EVER PLAYED THE GAME, AS HE DRIBBLED A BASKETBALL DOWN THE COURT. WHEN HE APPROACHED
THE FOUL LINE, HE JUST SEEMED TO TAKE OFF INTO THE AIR. WITH HIS LONG LEGS SPREAD-EAGLED,
HIS TONGUE CURLING OUT OF HIS MOUTH, HIS ARM POISED IN A GRACEFUL ARC ABOVE HIS HEAD AND
HIS EYES FOCUSED ON THE GOAL, HE ACTUALLY SEEMED TO FLY! HIS FLIGHT TOOK HIM ABOVE THE RIM
OF THE BASKETBALL GOAL—THEN HE SWIFTLY BROUGHT HIS ARM DOWN AND JAMMED THE BALL
THROUGH THE NET. AT THIS POINT, THE TELEVISION SCREEN WENT BLACK, AND THREE WORDS APPEARED:
"JUST DO IT."
The message was clear. There comes a time to stop bragging and talking and planning and thinking and planning
and thinking and practicing and dribbling ... and just do it! Just put the ball in the basket!
In the same way, there comes a time for Christians—for you and me—to stop merely reading and studying
and discussing and thinking and praying and repenting ... and just do it! Put all that you know and all you've
experienced into practice and start living it out. Now.
You cannot grow in your relationship with Jesus Christ and do nothing!
If you claim, "I've seen the Lord," what difference has it made? What difference can others see? What impact
has your experience of Jesus had on your life?
COMPELLED BY THE VISION
Because Isaiah had seen the Lord, he obeyed God's call.
Because Ezekiel had seen the Lord, he obeyed God's call.
Because Paul had seen the Lord, he obeyed God's call.
Because John had seen the Lord, he obeyed God's call.
If you have seen the Lord, what have you done?
Why are you still standing there in the same place you've been? This is your wake-up call! It's time to get up.
It's time to suit up. It's time to answer God's call by returning to the cross, repenting of your sin and just doing it.
Recommit your life to Jesus, and Jesus alone.
COMPELLED BY YOUR LOVE
When you love others, do you find it hard to sit still and do nothing for them when they're nearby?
Do you have someone in your life like your spouse, grandparent, mother, father, child, grandchild or
great-grandchild that you love so much that you are always wanting to do something for them?
I love doing those little things that say, "I love you!"
It stands to reason that we want to do something for those we love. Do you love Jesus—really love Him? I do!
And in my love for Him I seem to hear Him whispering to my heart the same thing He said to Peter that day so
long ago beside the Sea of Galilee ...
Peter had just had a dramatic, fresh encounter with the risen Jesus. Peter had seen the Lord. The sun was rising
in the morning sky, the fire was burning down, and the last morsels of fish and crumbs of bread had been consumed.
Jesus then turned His full attention to Peter. Lovingly, patiently and persistently He challenged Peter: If you love Me,
do something for Me.
Likewise, the Apostle Paul's vision of the glory of the resurrected Jesus compelled him to immediately do
something about what he had seen. He began telling people in Damascus about Jesus; then he proceeded to
Jerusalem, Judea, and the rest of the known world. He just couldn't have an encounter with the living
Lord Jesus Christ and do nothing!
The work Jesus had for Peter was different than the work He had for Paul, a lesson underscoring the Scripture
that tells us, "There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord" (1 Corinthians 12:5, NIV).
The work He has for me will be different than the work He has for you.
Some of us teach, some preach and some provide technical assistance with audio, video and computers.
Some of us keep the nursery, some cook in the kitchen and some lead in worship.
Some of us write books, some write music and some give legal counsel to the poor.
Some of us visit prisoners, and some greet church visitors and some clean the sanctuary.
Some of us feed the hungry, some house the homeless and some care for the dying.
COMPELLED BY HIS COMMAND
What we do for Jesus doesn't have to be something big. The important thing is to just do what He has called
us to do. Our motivation for obedient service is not a sense of duty, not our pride or privileges, not our reputations
or responsibilities. It is the same revival fire that burned within Peter and Paul. We have seen the Lord, and we work
for Him simply because we love Him and because He says so.
The same was true for Isaiah. Following his vision of the glory of the Lord, he humbly made himself available for
service. Almost immediately, the assignment was given: "Go and tell this people ..." (Isaiah 6:9, NIV).
His assignment was to relay the message God gave him to people who would
"be ever hearing, but never understanding" (Isaiah 6:9)
He was assigned to go to people who just would never get it. But Isaiah obeyed the Lord and became the greatest
of the Old Testament prophets.
Who are the people the Lord is sending you to? Your family? Your neighbors? Your coworkers? Your
business partner? Your church congregation? Your students? Your classmates? Your roommates?
Are you flinching, hesitating, procrastinating or resisting because it just seems so hard?
Sometimes I wonder if we, living in America in the 21st century, know what "hard" really is. During the 1890s,
A Christian man was sent by God to the people of China as a missionary. He opened the mission station,
learned the language, then began to preach the Gospel from village to village and town to town in Kiangsu Province.
For more than 18 months, he never had even one positive response to his message. As he returned home there
was not a night that he was not covered in bruises from the rocks the peasants had hurled at him or when his face
wasn't dripping with their spit. Years later, he was ask if he ever got discouraged. he looked perplexed, as though
he didn't know what that word meant. He responded,
"No. No. The battle is the Lord's, and He will deliver it into our hand."
What hardship do you face as you go about your work for the Lord? Can it compare with the
challenges faced by the missionaries—or by Isaiah?
Don't dodge your assignment because it seems to lack any chance for success or because it seems such an
insignificant, small thing. The Church in Europe was birthed when the Apostle Paul spoke to a handful of women
on a riverbank. The size and scope of the assignment are up to God, and the effectiveness and lasting impact of
your service are also His responsibility. You and I are simply to be faithfully available ... and obedient.
The assignments God gives you may take you way beyond your comfort zone. While some of them may begin small
and stay small, others may begin small and grow larger, while still others start large and blossomed into major tasks.
There may be times when you argue, resist, procrastinate and question, but in the end you always give in,
because He is your Lord. If you have "seen" Him, and love Him. You won't serve Him because you have to. You serve
Him because you want to do something for Him. And in the process of being obedient, You will come to know Him.
He will "make known the path of life. He wil fil you with joy in His presence, with eternal pleasures at
His right hand" (Cf. Psalm 16:11).
With eagerness and enthusiasm, I want to serve the Lord all the days of my life. I am on a passionate pursuit for
more of Jesus. I embrace the cross that shatters the stranglehold of self and enlarges my capacity to receive more.
I long ...
to gaze on His visible face,
to hear His audible voice,
to feel His unmistakable touch,
to become an eyewitness of His glory.
In the meantime, I raise my hand as I move my feet.
"Here am I. I'm available for service. Send me. I'm willing to just do it!"