love and obey

This morning I was thinking about the word “obey". Some may find this word offensive, it's a strong word. As a parent I knew that I had to teach my children to obey because if they didn't learn to obey, they would never learn to obey God. ⁣
When I think about obedience, I think of the Bible story in 1 Samuel 15, when King Saul disobeyed God because he was concerned about what the people thought of him. Saul’s words were "I was afraid of the people and so I gave in to them". I think we would call that a people pleaser personality. The king wanted to please the people more than he wanted to please God. ⁣
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1 Samual 15:22 says, “to obey is better than sacrifice”. Obedience is a place of total dependence on God, it's intimacy and trusting in the character of God. ⁣
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Sacrifice is doing something and holding God indebted to our acts. It might sound like this, ⁣
"God I went to church with perfect attendance, so you owe me". ⁣
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To obey God is to love God⁣
To love God is to obey God⁣
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I can't separate the two, the more I have received the love of Jesus in my own life the more I have wanted to obey His Word. ⁣
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Now that doesn't mean I haven’t struggled! I would fight for my right to stay in unforgiveness, I didn't want to obey that part, it wasn't fair. But when I finally obeyed, the God of the impossible made forgiveness possible, all through the power of Jesus’ love. ⁣
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Obeying the Word, even when it didn't feel good, was for my good. God will show us His power through obedience to His Word. He is Truth and life!⁣
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My prayer is that we learn to obey the voice of God and to not be concerned what people might think. I pray that we want to obey God through our relationship with Him. God, show me the power of obedience unto You in my life today!⁣
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I love y'all Dianna