Today my thoughts turn to living in obedience. As a follower of Jesus true discipleship requires obedience to his Word, the teaching we find in the Bible about how we are to live.
Obedience, true obedience starts with a heart of worship and celebration. It continues in knowing that we belong to him and are cared for by him. This requires us to trust him. Notice that the call to obedience begins with the conviction of God's care for us.
Psalm 95:6-9 CSB
Come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the LORD our Maker.
[7] For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, the sheep under his care. Today, if you hear his voice:
[8] Do not harden your hearts as at Meribah, as on that day at Massah in the wilderness
[9] where your fathers tested me; they tried me, though they had seen what I did.
The word 'hear' as in the phrase 'Today if you hear his voice' is to hear with intention. To hear with an expectation that you will act in obedience to what you hear. The Israelites heard, but hardened their hearts, the psalmist asks us to choose a different path and to hear God with intention and with obedience.
James also picks up on this in his writing on hearing and doing.
James 1:22-25 CSB
But be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. [23] Because if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like someone looking at his own face in a mirror. [24] For he looks at himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of person he was. [25] But the one who looks intently into the perfect law of freedom and perseveres in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer who works-this person will be blessed in what he does.
It is the same understanding that we will hear and we will act intentionally on what we hear. We are not to be stubborn like the Israelites, but instead, choose to walk in obedience. Freedom and blessing is ours and comes through trust in the God who saves us and in obedience to his guidance and direction for our lives.
