Learning to obey God
Here’s a question I get sometimes from people who are trying to get their lives in order and want to obey God, but still struggle with always doing the right thing: Is there a way to get to where I love to obey God instead of obeying out a sense of duty or fear of punishment? Because that’s kind of where I am right now.
And my answer is always, absolutely, yes. It is totally possible to obey God from a place of love instead of duty or fear.
So how do we get to where we feel that loving relationship with God and we want to obey Him, we love to obey God from that depth of love?
You need a desire to obey God
First of all, I would say you have to have some degree of a desire to obey God. What are your motives for wanting to obey God? Is it just to assuage His wrath? That’s not the best motive.
Do you really want to have a loving relationship with your creator? That’s a really good motive and it’s important to think about that.
One thing I want to say right off the bat is don’t believe everything other people tell you about God, how He forgives, how He loves you, all those things, what He does if you don’t obey Him. There are so many different opinions out there.
You need to get to know God for yourself.
And I would say start with reading the Bible. You probably are already reading the Bible, but I would look at the Book of John specifically and see how Jesus talks to God, what he says about God.
Look at God through the eyes of how Jesus saw him, how Jesus Interacted with God, how Jesus prayed, how he described God, that helps you get to know God.
Talk to God
And the more you get to know Him, the more, the more you’ll love him and you’ll want to obey God. I also would say, talk to God. Even if you don’t hear him talking back to you, talk to God.
Try to have a conversation, write things down in a journal of questions that you ask God. And if you get an answer, write those down too. Or if ideas just come to you, write those down.
I think one of the best ways to get to know God is to do what Jesus tells us to do. Now why does that help you get to know God? Well, because from one perspective, you could say that Jesus came to teach us about our relationship to God, how much God loves, cares for, provides for, and protects us.
And why is it important to get to know God? Because the more you get to know a person, the more you love that person. You appreciate their kindness, their generosity, or whatever it is. The more you get to know God, the more you will love God because you’ll see his true nature as loving, forgiving, wise, strengthening, supportive, all those kinds of things.
You’ll want to obey God
And why is it important to know God and love Him? Because the more you love God, the more you will naturally want to obey God. Not out of fear of punishment if you don’t obey him, not just out of a human sense of duty. Or “I’m supposed to obey God because that’s what they told me at church.”
You want to obey God because you want to have a deep desire in your heart to do what is right in God’s eyes. And the more you love God, the more you can’t help but obey Him.
Now, I know sometimes it’s hard to give up what you want to do, things that aren’t obeying God. But have you ever wanted something so bad and then when you got it, it didn’t really give you the happiness that you thought it would? It didn’t meet your expectations. Maybe it was really a total mistake.
God wants what’s best for you
One reason you will eventually love to obey God and do what he tells you is because God always has your best interests in mind. Now, you may not see this at the time, but it is still true. God always wants what is best for you.
The more you obey Him, the more you’ll get of what’s best for you. And in this process, as you’re growing into this love of obeying God, I think it’s helpful to remember that it actually is perfectly natural to obey God.
You don’t need to rebel against His instructions for living a good life. You are capable of obeying God, and the more you do it, the better you get at it. The beautiful thing is, if you mess up and are disobedient, God is always there to guide you to take the next right step.
Don’t beat yourself up. Acknowledge where you fell short and just do one thing. Take one step towards something you know God wants you to do and then go from there. Build on that.
Well, these are just a few quick ideas to kind of prime the pumps for you to think and pray about how you can get to the point in your heart where you love to obey God. And if there’s something that’s been really helpful to you, I would love to hear from you.
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Photo credit: Ben White
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James Early, the Jesus Mindset Coach, is a Bible teacher, speaker, and church mentor. He conducts Bible workshops online and in person. His focus is on getting back to the original Christianity of Jesus by learning to think, pray, and love like Jesus. Contact him here.
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