Is God good enough to earn your obedience?

As culture continues to invade and pervade the Church, an unholy display of faux righteous indignation also seems to be demonstrably on the rise.

I’m talking about those persons who know what is right, choose not to do it (see James 4:17 about that), yet attempt to make pious-sounding arguments and proclaim polished philosophies for disobeying God. And when those finally fall flat, they retreat to their favorite excuse and cry, “Grace!”

Having a problem with obeying God speaks directly to an individual’s spiritual condition rather than to the holiness of God.

God is utterly pure!

He’s perfectly holy … “This is the message we heard from Jesus and now declare to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all,” 1 John 1:5.

So what’s the problem, then, with obeying Him? Where does the questioning come from? Why the consistent hand-ringing, mental manipulations, and emotional hijinks?

We’ve all had our moments of trepidation about obedience. However, it’s one thing to occasionally struggle with weakness; it’s another to make every day a challenge of obedience …

“So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness; we are not practicing the truth,” 1 John 1:6.

Those who have to constantly make another decision to exercise faith and walk with God are really doing their own thing and evaluating God on — quite literally — a step-by-step basis: “Maybe I will take this step, or maybe I won’t …,” “Maybe I’ll take that step, or maybe I won’t …”

That is not a life surrendered to Christ, it’s a “self-sovereign” demanding of God to provide a good enough reason why He should be obeyed!

If you don’t know what your commitment to Jesus Christ is right now, tomorrow, or the day after, you’ve likely not made one. Commitment is something you decide now, and then live out as best you can one day at a time, by the power of the Holy Spirit enabling you.

But God isn’t going to drag it out of you.

Joshua made the whole issue simple, and stated it this way: “So fear the Lord and serve him wholeheartedly. Put away forever the idols your ancestors worshiped when they lived beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt. Serve the Lord alone. But if you refuse to serve the Lord, then choose today whom you will serve. Would you prefer the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates? Or will it be the gods of the Amorites in whose land you now live? But as for me and my family, we will serve the Lord,” Joshua 24:14-15.

How about you … is God “good enough” to earn your obedience?

Scotty