When I was a teenager, one of my favorite activities
was to get on my motorcycle and go way out into the woods in Virginia. There
was one path I use to take, that at a certain point it split. One part was wide
and easy, the other was up a steep hill, narrow and difficult. I did not feel
like the bother, so I always stuck to the wide path. Yet, each time I would get
to the fork, I would stop my bike and look up the path. At the top, it almost
seemed as though a door opened through the trees. Finally, one day, realizing
that the trek up the hill might be worth it, I took the other side of the fork.
As I approached the top of the hill, it was like a door opened up from the
thick woods I was in. I arrived at the top, where suddenly I could see an open
field, several old abandoned farmhouses! It was like stepping back in time.
Inside a covered garage was a very old, rusted truck. I spent the next few
hours exploring. That spot became one of my favorites to return to whenever I
just wanted to be quiet. I never saw anyone else there and I never took anyone
to it. It was an escape to the past for me just to be quiet and think.
Sometimes we need to risk opening a door. Obedience is like
that. We know it is the right thing to do, but sometimes our flesh will try and
make us think we will lose something that is really important if we obey the
Lord and not our flesh. It may cost a momentary pleasure, but we will never
have to reap the consequences of our sin...which is always much more expensive
than that millisecond of pleasure!
Obedience is the Door that leads to the path of Victory
& eternal Prosperity!
Exodus 23:22 “But if you
truly obey his voice and do all that I say, then I will be an enemy to your
enemies and an adversary to your adversaries.
Deuteronomy 29:9 “So keep
the words of this covenant to do them, that you may prosper in all that you do.
Joshua 1:8 “This book of
the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and
night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it;
for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success.
This is not a maybe...the problem is that the apostates of this
day teach that when we obey we can demand of God NOW our victory! God is a
generous and giving God, and most times He blesses here and later, however, we
must understand His promise is that all we do will be translated into success
and prosperity.
I once heard one of the most famous health, wealth, prosperity
preachers state “ I don’t want to hear about the gold streets in heaven, I want my gold
now!”
I hope due to God’s mercy, God ignored that demand, because the gold of this place
will burn! The success and prosperity that God desires for us may begin here,
but it is eternal in nature and will go into eternity with us.
Obedience is also a Door to the path of Assurance of
Salvation
Deuteronomy 27:9–10 Then Moses and the Levitical priests
spoke to all Israel, saying, “Be silent and listen, O Israel! This day you have
become a people for the Lord your
God. “You shall therefore obey the Lord
your God, and do His commandments and His statutes which I command you today.”
Luke 6:46 “Why do you call Me,
‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?
1 John 2:3 By
this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments.
1 John 2:5 but
whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By
this we know that we are in Him:
Now we know that works have NOTHING to do with our acquiring
salvation. God alone did all the work. Still, many walk around with all kinds
of doubt concerning their relationship with the Lord. Most...not all...could
trace that lack of assurance back to the fact that they live in perpetual
disobedience. When we obey His voice it affirms Who our Lord is!
Don’t spend this very short time on earth seeking the
right path to take. Step through the door of Obedience and you will be on that
path!
Meditation Questions: What
pleasures have you tasted that God was never in? So what do you think is
happening when you know you love God, but don’t obey? Explain. How much time
have you wasted that you regret? Why?
Steve Green sings “And I confess that
though Your love is in me, it doesn’t always win me when competing with my sin”
Ever feel like that? What do you do about it? What should you do about it? Read
Romans 7 and identify with Paul. Then see his hope. Then pick yourself up off the pity party and obey again!
Never quit obeying again!
