Love is more than nice feelings; real love includes action. If we say we love God and want to put Him first in our lives, we must act-and we act on our love by obeying Him. Very few of us would say, “I am not going to obey God.” Instead we make excuses. I remember many times when I would be easily angered and difficult to get along with and then I would excuse my behavior by saying, “I am tired and don’t feel good.” It may be more difficult to be kind to others when we are tired, but at all cost we must avoid making excuses because they deceive us and give us permission to continue in disobedience. We are not putting God first if we disobey Him.
If we truly desire to obey God, we steadily grow in learning how to hear His voice and choose the path He is asking us to take. Pray daily that you will receive the grace from God to obey Him. Don’t just try… pray!
Prompt Obedience
In Exodus 24, God spoke to Moses and Moses recorded what He said. When he read these words to God’s people, they responded, “All that the Lord has said we will do, and we will be obedient” (Exodus 24:7). Obviously, they did not treat God’s Word lightly. They understood that they could not simply hear what God said, they also had to obey. When I read this passage, I get the impression the people had come to hear the Word having already decided they wanted to learn what they were supposed to do and how they were supposed to live. Their attitude seemed to be, “No matter what God says, we will do it.”
Meditating on the power thought, “I put God first in my life,” will help you develop a new mind-set. Your attitude will change to one of prompt obedience rather than one of procrastination and excuses.
In James 1:22 we read, “But be doers of the Word [obey the message], and not merely listeners to it.” Wonderful things would happen if we made our mind up to do what we hear in God’s Word rather than merely listening to it.
In our culture today, we sometimes listen to Bible-based teaching for the sake of gaining knowledge.
Though knowledge is important, it won’t change our lives unless we act on it. Many people have said to me over the years, “Joyce, I have all your books and tapes, and I watch you on television every day.” I appreciate such comments, but I really want to say in response, “That’s great, but are you applying what you learn? Are you obeying the Word of God when you hear it?” I have talked in this book about the power of proper mind-sets. If we set our mind in advance to obey God’s instructions it will be much easier to do. How much of what you know are you doing? Start confessing, “I put God and His will first at all times.” This will renew your mind and soon you will find yourself being more obedient with fewer struggles. Remember that where the mind goes the man follows. We become what we think (see Proverbs 23:7).
We must not allow ourselves to merely feel good about the fact that we go to church, can quote Scripture, or have a houseful of Christian resources unless we are also making every effort to line our behavior up with what we learn. I realize we are on a lifetime journey and that none of us have arrived, but we do need to make sure that we are daily pressing toward the goal of being like Christ.
Large numbers of Christians live in anger, bitterness, resentment, and unforgiveness yet they know that God strongly instructs us to forgive and to be quick about it. Why would they do that? They do it because obedience requires a decision of the will that goes beyond emotions. We follow our feelings entirely too much. We must own our emotions and not allow them to own us. A person may know that they really need to get out of debt, but they just keep putting it off. They intend to do it but fail to realize that good intentions are not obedience. If we simply listen and don’t obey, it really doesn’t help us nor does it glorify God.
Putting God first means that we choose what pleases Him rather than what pleases us. Try to learn in your experience what is pleasing to God and set your mind to do it.
