Abiding Through Obedience

by Christine Dawson

In obedience is our strength.

When we are walking in disobedience in any area of our lives, and we choose to begin to walk in obedience concerning that situation, and we do it habitually, we gain strength to continue in obedience, and to begin to obey in other areas of our lives as well. We realize that in obedience is strength to continue to obey in other areas, too. And when we do this, God blesses us.

Recently, I wrote an article on Abiding in Christ. I wrote that often we think that we need to DO something to abide in Him. But the truth is that all we need to do is to allow HIM to bear the fruit in us. We need to allow Him to do the work in, and through us. Herein is abiding through obedience. In his book, "Obedience: Its place in Holy Scripture", Andrew Murray writes, "How often and how earnestly we have asked how to be able to abide continually in Christ! We have thought of more study of the Word, more faith, more prayer, more communication with God, and we have overlooked the simple truth that Jesus teaches so clearly, 'If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love,' with its divine sanction, 'just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in His love' (John 15:10).

"For Him as for us, the only way under heaven to abide in divine love is to keep the commandments....obedience on earth is the key to a place in God's love in heaven. Unless there be some correspondence between God's wholehearted love in heaven and our wholehearted, loving obedience on earth, Christ cannot manifest Himself to us, God cannot abide in us, we cannot abide in His love.”

When we tell our children to do, or not to do something, and they test our limits or they deliberately disobey us, we often think, “If he/she would just obey me the first time, it would be so much easier for him/her.” (Not to mention, us!) It’s the same with our relationship with God. When He tells us to do something, or not to do something, it is in our best interest to listen and obey Him right away…not to do our own thing, and THEN go back to obedience. We more quickly get further ahead in our walk with Him when we immediately obey, than we do if we linger on our own desires first.

God desires to bless us, and to use us to bless others. He desires to pour His love out on us, to abide in us, to do His work in and through us. The only way He can do that is when we obey Him and abide in Him. If we want to be blessed, and we want Him to use us, the key is in obedience to Him.

Article submitted Monday, October 03, 2011 & read 37 times.

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