We Are God's Treasured Possession Series

God told the people: "if you obey me fully..."

Obedience to God should be done fully, absolutely, completely and without any reservations.

Obedience therefore is important in in maintaining our Christian identity.

In fact, obedience is central to spiritual growth.

Obedience means to be directed by God or to surrender before God.

It means we agree or submit ourselves to God's will.

Every major aspect of the Christian life depends on obeying God.

When we follow His ways, life works better and he loves us more.

According to a widely distributed anecdote in the internet, it was said that during the US Civil War, Abraham Lincoln met with a group of ministers for a prayer breakfast.

At that time, Lincoln was not yet a church goer but he was a man of deep unorthodox faith.

During the proceedings of the prayer breakfast, one minister said, "Mr. president, let us pray that God is on our side."

Lincoln's response showed great spiritual insight.

He said, "No, gentlemen, let us pray that we are on God's side."

That means, many times, we wanted God to do what we want.

We wanted Him to be on our side.

But real obedience is doing what God really wants.

We must pray that we are on His side.

We must know His will, His purpose and His desires for us.

We relinquish our own plans so that His plans will prevail for our lives.

That is the big difference - let us pray that we are on God's side.

Only those who are obedient to His Words are His special treasured possessions.

Obedience to God therefore always create good results.

Obeying His Words will make us prosper in our relationship with God.

It will make us blossom, thrive and succeed in life

Deut. 6:24 (NIV) "24 The Lord commanded us to obey all these decrees and to fear the Lord our God, so that we might always prosper and be kept alive, as is the case today."

Because of obedience, we will always prosper and we will be kept alive.

Kept alive from what?

Alive in faith and becoming active and dynamic Christian.

However, disobedience always have bad consequences.

It is as if His hand of protection has been lifted from us when we disobey Him.

We are left to defend ourselves without God helping us.

The Bible says we will be devoured by the sword when we do not obey God.

Isa. 1:19-20 (NIV) "19 If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the good things of the land; 20 but if you resist and rebel,

you will be devoured by the sword.” For the mouth of the Lord has spoken."

There you go. It is clear.

God is angry when we disobey Him.

But obedience will make us highly valued before God.

Obedience also means we surrender or submit to God's Word.

When we obey, we learn to give up our will, we abandon our plans, our agendas and our desire for control.

Then, we allow Christ to take control of our lives.

We let go of our self-centered life in order to be Christ-centered.

This requires continual striving on our part and application of our faith.

But we must do this daily if we want to learn obedience.

We have to realize His love, His plans, His precepts and His love.