“That thou mayest love the LORD thy God, and that thou mayest obey his voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto him: for he is thy life, and the length of thy days:…” Deut. 30:20
“Trust me,” the Spirit of God told me one night as I knelt on my knees praying before bed. “You need to obey. You don’t need to understand.”
I had been questioning something He had told me to do. Had it really been God? Would He tell me to do something like that? It didn’t make sense. To me anyway. It wasn’t comfortable. Not to my flesh. It hadn’t been my idea. I had resisted Him. Then obeyed. Then questioned Him afterward. More resistance. Lack of sweet humble submission.
His Spirit reminded me. I am His servant. Christ’s servant. My beloved Christ’s beloved servant. A love relationship like none other. Where servanthood is beautiful, precious. Yes, I am His servant. It’s not for me to question Him. It’s for me to obey Him out of a heart delighting to passionately and persistently love and pursue and please Him.
Oh, how often it seems though that we question God. That we reason, debate, resist, rebel, seek to understand first, or afterward, or anywhere in between, refusing to humble ourselves before Him, pridefully convincing ourselves we have a right to wait to obey, to tell God He needs to explain Himself first, then we’ll obey, well, maybe, if we feel like it, if we approve His explanation.
How appalling, how wicked, how selfish, how arrogant of us, isn’t it, to not simply bow down before the Lord and say yes, God, yes, yes oh Lord, yes! Jesus Christ gave up every breath of His life on earth for us, and died a heinous death for us, took our sins upon Himself to offer us eternal life, took our sin penalty of death, hell, and the lake of fire upon Himself, and of separation from God upon Himself, for us, and here we are, saying we want to understand, we need to understand, we deserve to understand – before we decide whether to say yes to Him or not. To that which He asks of us. To that which no matter how hard, uncomfortable, risky, etc., it may seem, is NOTHING compared with what God and Christ have done for us!
Oh, but what joy when instead we learn to come humbly before Him, to say no to our flesh that screams to be satisfied, say no to our pride, repent of it all, and say, yes, Lord, without understanding, debate, or resistance, I choose to obey you, because I love you!
Sometimes He explains. Sometimes He reveals to us that which helps us understand. A little. A lot. Maybe even all. But whether or not He does should make no difference. He is Lord! It’s our job to say to the Lord, yes, master, in my love for you my beloved, yes! My God and King! My master and redeemer, yes my beloved Lord! Oh yes! Yes I will! Yes!