Is there anyone here who likes to obey? Anyone? Our family takes turns doing the dishes in our home. One day last week, my daughter told me, “Dad, it’s your turn to wash the dishes.” I finished some more things for work, turned off the lights, went upstairs, and got into bed. If you are like me, you don’t like to obey. Most people don’t like to obey. I consider myself a pretty obedient person for the most part, and even I don’t like to be told what to do. We don’t like to be told what to do, when to do it, and how to do it. If there is something people really want us to do, they should really learn how to be quiet. It would have been better for them if they had said nothing. Next time, if my daughter really wants me to remember to do the dishes, she must really learn to be quiet.
If I am right, the primary reason why you and I don’t like to obey is because we like our independence. This is our life. We like to live it. We are our own person, and we like to make our own decisions. We don’t like to be told how to live our life. We don’t like for others to make our decisions. We like to go with our own, even when we know deep inside that someone else’s suggestion might make a better choice. To make things worse, we like to think we know we have the best decision. We feel we know ourselves better than anyone else, so we know what is best for us. Why go and listen to anyone else?
I know we don’t like to obey. But at the same time, we teach our children to obey, don’t we? Why do we not like to obey, and yet it is okay for us to teach our children to obey? We teach them to obey not because we say so. We teach our children to obey not so we may see them receive a reward. We teach them to obey because we love them, and we want only the best for them. We especially don’t wish to see anything bad happen to them. We shout to them not to experiment with vaping. We shout to them to bring along a jacket when they go outside. We do a lot of shouting because we love them.
I know we don’t like to obey. I get it. But you and I should really learn to obey God. We obey God not because he commanded us to do so in the Bible. I wish I could say that we obey God so that things will go better for us from here. But that may not always happen. God never promised that sort of thing. So why should we obey God? Are you ready? The Bible says not only did God create everything visible and invisible, he understands everything visible and invisible. God is the Supreme One. There is no one above him. There is no one who sees everything and understands everything better than him. For this reason, we can and should trust him. When he tells us to obey, it is done with the highest love for us.
1 John 5:3 For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.
God wants us to obey him because what he tells us to do is truly what is best for us. Every time we choose to do things our way, we are in fact saying we prefer something that is less than the best. We grieve when our children choose to go with something that is less than the best for them. So why shouldn’t God grieve when we choose to go with something that is less than the best for us? When we choose to take matters into our own hands, and purposely disobey him, he grieves for us.
Let’s learn together, you and I, to obey God. When we obey God, we are doing everything that the One Who Knows Everything is telling us to do. He is the Supreme One who, unlike any of us, truly knows what is best for us. When we obey him, we are in the best spot in the whole world. And won’t you agree with me that is a pretty good place to be?