In All Who’s Ways?...
Joshua 22:5 (New Living Translation)
5 But be very careful to obey all the commands and the instructions that Moses gave to you. Love the Lord your God, walk in all his ways, obey his commands, hold firmly to him, and serve him with all your heart and all your soul.”
My son, daughter and I have a discussion quite frequently on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, which are the days that the house is supposed to get cleaned. You see they have a list of things that they are supposed to accomplish, in a specific way that I have detailed many times, but they feel as if they do it, that they are in obedience. But just because they do the things I ask, does not make it right, or done the way that it is supposed to be done or the way that I have specified? There are certain times that they will follow the order of things to the letter, but then at least one day out of the week, they make the decision to do it their way, and that is where the problems arise.
As I read through this scripture I thought, how many of us do the same exact thing. We think as long as we are doing what God says that it is okay. We never consider the specific, instructions given by God. We do not give attention to the details; we just want to be able to say we did it and that we obeyed God. But is it really obedience if we do not do it the way, God says it, in the timing that He specifies for us to do it in, or even like He likes it? As I thought about this I thought about my children and how when I give them chores or an assignment, and it is not done the way I want it done, I view it as disobedience, so why do we think God would look at differently? It is not just disobedience, it is willful disobedience. It is us making a choice to get it done, but in our way, to spite how God has instructed or asked us to perform or get the assignment done. We do not realize just as my children do not realize that when we do things according to our design instead of God’s that our whole heart is not a part of the process. Because when our whole heart is involved we consider what is asked of us and we try our hardest to accomplish the task, to the specifications outlined by the one we claim to love so very much, that has given us the assignment or directive. We do not realize that our service becomes tainted by selfishness, and deliberateness, when we allow the flesh to be heard over the spirit, and we comply.
If we are going to submit to the will of God let us not just do what He says, but let us submit and commit to doing it the way He specifies in the time He outlines for us to get it done. We should never approach an assignment, and command from God with our own agenda. Our soul should be in check to be in compliance to our spirit and to the Will of God. Our desire should be to please our creator, the one whom we were created to worship and to satisfy. Our desire should be to please the one who is sending us, and to know that if He gives us something to do and a way to achieve it there is a reason for it. God maybe testing our ability to be in full and total submission and obedience to Him, to see if He can trust us, to see if we can operate in integrity to the point we will ensure that His Will is carried out in the way that He asks of us over our own ideas or wants. So before we cut corners, justify our getting it done by any means, we have to understand if we love God, and trust Him, that we should be wanting to please God and to earn His trust, and the way to do that is hear His voice, listen whole heartedly and do as the Father instructs us to do no matter how bad we may want to put our own spin on it! Love Him enough to do it His way and to obey!
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