Obedience

We continually learn obedience. We never really master it because God constantly takes us to a higher level. I usually look back at issues I had such a hard time with in the past and ask what the big deal was because it pales in comparison to what I’m facing now. Has that happened to you? You never reach the summit and just sit. As I look at each new challenge, I always think there’s no way I can obey. Some situations take longer than others for me to sign on. Sad to say, some I’ve just opted out of.

Two things I’ve learned as I’ve gotten older. One is that it does not pay to disobey. What an understatement. Second, He always seems to address those hard areas, the ones you wrap your fingers around tightly.

He’s like the cell phone guy that keeps saying, "Can you hear me now?" Instead, God keeps saying, "Do you trust me now?" The situation changes, the venue changes and you’ll hear Him say again, "Do you trust Me now?" Unfortunately so many times my response is, "Let me think about it. I’ll get back to You."

This particular day, I had had another encounter with God. I meet with Him every day. He’s definitely real. But every once in awhile, He is SO real and SO applicable to a particular situation I’m in, I am just amazed beyond words. And then there’s a decision to make…a choice. Trust or back off.

That day, I was plodding along, purposely not looking at my checkbook to avoid angst. Then I read Psalm 1:2-3. "They delight in doing everything the Lord wants; day and night they think about His law...bearing fruit each season without fail."

They delight....in doing everything the Lord wants. Like... isn’t just the fact that I’m doing it enough? Some of the things You want me to do are tough. Some are just so out of my comfort zone. Some are really a stretch and that’s putting it mildly. I’m going way out on a limb here and You’re telling me to delight in doing everything You want? That’s like walking across a tightrope 30 feet up with every fiber of my being concentrating on not falling off and You’re telling me to.... smile?

Yet what picture of God are we giving the world when we respond to our situation with a somber hang dog expression, looking at the floor, shaking our heads saying, "Yeah, I’m following God’s will."

How do we delight when we have an unfaithful husband or a vindictive mother in law or a rebellious child or a cold, demanding boss or an insane coach or a godless society or an unfair teacher? Yet, Psalm 37:4 says, "Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart." Notice it doesn’t say when He’ll give you the desires of your heart or how He defines the desires of your heart. It just says to delight yourself in Him and He will. Obey. Trust.

Hudson Taylor was a missionary to China in the late 1800's. In the book Hudson Taylor’s Spiritual Secret, he says, "To me it was a very grave matter ... to contemplate going out to China, far from all human aid, there to depend upon the living God alone for protection, supplies and help of every kind. I felt that one’s spiritual muscles required strengthening for such an undertaking. There was no doubt that if faith did not fail, God would not fail. But what if one’s faith should prove insufficient? I had not at that time learned that even ‘if we believe not, yet He abideth faithful; He cannot deny Himself.’ It was consequently a very serious matter to my mind, not whether He was faithful, but whether I had strong enough faith to warrant my embarking on the enterprise set before me."

In other words, there were no Marines that would rescue him, no overnight Fed Ex delivery. If God did not anticipate his needs ahead of time, fill the order and get it on the slow boat to China six months before Mr. Taylor was aware of the need, he was out of luck. The need would not get met.

"When I get out to China," I thought to myself, "I shall have no claim on anyone for anything. My only claim will be on God. How important to learn, before leaving England, to move man, through God, by prayer alone."

Mr. Taylor’s employer in England wanted him to remind him whenever his salary became due. Mr. Taylor decided not to do so directly, but knowing that God knew his needs, to ask Him to remind his employer and so teach him to trust Him by answering his prayer, a lesson desperately needed before going to China.

Payday drew near. Mr. Taylor was praying. No money. Days dragged on. He was down to his last half crown. He was called to a tenement house in the poorest section of town one Sunday night following a wonderful day of services and ministry. "Four or five children stood about, their sunken cheeks and temples telling unmistakably the story of slow starvation, and lying on a wretched pallet was a poor, exhausted mother, with a tiny infant moaning rather than crying at her side."

He thought to himself how he would gladly give them money if he’d had change for his half crown. But he couldn’t give the whole half crown because it was all he had with no assurance that a paycheck was forthcoming.

"I began to tell them, however that they must not be cast down; that though their circumstances were very distressing there was a kind and loving Father in heaven. But something within me cried, "You hypocrite! Telling these unconverted people about a kind and loving Father in heaven, and not prepared yourself to trust Him without half-a-crown!"

The battle within continued throughout his entire visit. Before he left, he knelt and prayed for them and "arose from my knees in great distress of mind. The poor father turned to me and said, ‘You see what a terrible state we are in, sir. If you can help us, for God’s sake do!’"

"At that moment the word flashed into my mind, "Give to him that asketh of thee." And in the word of a King there is power. I put my hand into my pocket and slowly drawing out the half crown gave it to the man, telling him that it might seem a small matter for me to relieve them, seeing that I was comparatively well off, but that in parting with that coin I was giving him my all; but that what I had been trying to tell them was indeed true, God really was a Father who might be trusted. How the joy came back in full flood tide to my heart!" He knew it was true not only in his head but in his heart. His Father could be trusted.

He obeyed. Joy flooded his soul.

Notice that God did not say, “Give to him that asketh of thee and don’t worry, your boss will remember to pay you tomorrow.” Oh no, all God said was to give the man his money…all his money. He obeyed. Joy flooded his soul.

The next day, a letter came in the mail. He did not recognize the handwriting and the return address was blurred and unreadable. When he opened it, he found a blank sheet of paper and a pair of kid gloves. He unfolded the gloves and found half a sovereign. He stated that half a sovereign at that time was worth 400 times more than his half a crown.

Mr. Taylor founded the China Inland Mission. The income while he directed the work, sustained only with his prayers, “unasked save of God”, no less than four million dollars and this was in the 1800’s.

He learned early on that God could be trusted to supply his needs. And that his obedience would bring joy, unexplainable joy, great delight.

That’s what makes God famous.