by The sun was shining brightly as the birds sang in the trees. The young girls laughed and giggle as they played in the yard. The ball bounced high and low as each girl kicked it upon her turn. The soccer ball came quickly towards Becca. With all her might, she swung back her leg and kicked; but the ball kept rolling right past her small body.
Saddened she missed the ball, she quickly turned and ran after it. “I’ll get the ball!” she yelled! While running towards the road to get the ball, she looked over her shoulder and glanced back at the other girls. She did not see the cars zinging up and down the road.
Mother jumped up from her chair on the porch. There was no time to run after Becca, so Mother yelled with all her might, “BECCA – STOP!”
Becca came to a screeching stop just as one foot stepped off the curb and onto the road. A car whizzed by her small frame of a being. She felt the wind from the racing car blow quickly across her body. She staggered but did not fall over. The ball continued to roll and it stopped on the other side of the road.
Frantically, Mother ran across the yard. She grabbed Becca up into her arms and hugged her ever so tight. Breathing heavy and crying, Mother spoke, “Becca, I’m so glad you obeyed my command when I yelled at you to “Stop!””
Becca replied, “Thank you Mommy for yelling at me. I didn’t think about the cars. I just wanted the ball since I missed kicking it.” Mother continued, “You can always trust me Becca and you must always obey me when I tell you something even if it does not make sense.”
With loving eyes, Becca hugged her Mom and said, “Yes, Mommy, I love you.”
I Samuel 15:22 “And Samuel said, Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.”
This verse has always made me stop and ponder it when I read it in my Bible studies.
Webster’s 1828 dictionary puts it simple. Obedience is “Compliance with a command” and “obedience may be voluntary or involuntary. Voluntary obedience alone can be acceptable to God.”
I see it this way. People can come to church and read their Bibles, but if they are doing these things involuntarily because a parent drug them to church or a spouse made them read the Bible, then this is not the kind of obedience God accepts.
When someone forces someone to do something – that is not obedience. Obedience is when we are told to do something and we do it just because it is the right thing to do and we do it with the right heart and the right attitude. Since God knows the heart, he knows when we do things with the right attitude and he knows when we do things with the wrong attitude and for the wrong reasons.
There are many wrong reasons why we would obey God’s commands with the wrong heart, and only each of us knows our heart and if we are obeying voluntarily or involuntarily.
The little girl above, Becca, obeyed her Mother’s voice because she loved her mother and wanted to make her mother happy with her obedience. She also obeyed immediately, which in her case, saved her life. This is how we need to obey God. We need to obey his commands because we love him and we want to make him happy with our obedience. Also if we obey God voluntarily, they his Word says “it may be well unto you.” Now this does not mean everything in life will be perfect, but it could save one’s life. I have heard of people with cancers and God miraculously healed them from a cancer. Maybe their obedience prior to the cancer was a voluntary obedience to God so God stayed true to his Word and made it “well unto you” (them.)
Jeremiah 7:23 “But this thing commanded I them, saying, Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people: and walk ye in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well unto you.”
Take a few minutes and read the remainder of Jeremiah 7:24-34 and see the wrath that God poured out upon Judah for their disobedience. There are also many other stories in the Bible to encourage us to obey God’s Word, but this encouragement today is not just to obey – but to obey voluntarily with the right kind of heart.
Psalm 138:23-24 “Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”
Search one’s heart and see if one’s obedience is voluntary or involuntary.
