Have you ever had a hard time obeying God? (Be honest, it is just you and God). Sometimes He does the "parent thing", Do this... no explanation, no discussion (I hate that, I want to "work it out --talk about what if's, preparation needed, possible outcomes but He says.. Do it!) And then the Why?What if? How? wheel starts in our head and hearts. And then we hear Him, "Walk by Faith, Trust me, and Know that I AM sufficient for all your needs, I will WORK THROUGH (inspite) of you if you submit and OBEY!. WOW!!!! I feel like such the disobedient, disrespectful bratty child. Have you ever discussed this with your children??
They yearn to see adults having to make hard choices, in their eyes adults get to do whatever we want, especially when they see "bad examples" and they always seem to be there when we slip and always remember that episode, and share it with everyone they come in contact with. My ..... said something mean to their friend or ...... said they could not do something for someone when they could have, they just did not want to or ..... said a really bad word, and they were not even mad, they just wanted to say the bad word that if they were a kid they would have had soap put in their mouth. I personally think God made children to reproof us incase we do not heed the holy spirits prompting, and miss the biblical reproof. There is just something about, having a child question your actions and have you try to explain why you did something and why you are not going to be punished. If we are truthful and take a moment and handle this right it is such a model to follow as a parent. And what a relief and lesson to our children, Do not rejoice in anothers sorrow, but instead desire grace and forgiveness and righteousness returning for the person. What a feeling to have your child pray for you and understand that even though we do not see God's dealing with someone we KNOW it happens because it says so in the Bible, and even when people say otherwise, God blesses when we obey the laws and rules he has given us and the things he tells us to do and when we do not obey we risk, consequences which only happen when we are out of God's will when we have walked out of his protection and are walking on our own, fighting battles we were not designed to fight and doing or going places we were not designed to go.
This is where many demonination and doctrinal issues arise, this is not threatening us to do (WORK) for Gods love, He gave us that freely, before we even knew Him, because of the breakdown in our spiritual family tree. This is basically Grace, the buzz word in christianity and a source of great debates, many books and alot of missing the whole point. This has nothing to do with our salvation, this is about our daily living, and choices to be with God, under his protection, guidance and assistance or to go it in our own strength, with our wealth of knowledge, and pride, selfishness. We make this decision hundreds of times a day, either we pray and take God through our day with us or we only call him after we act and get into trouble and "Oh, God please forgive me for ....., please help we...." or sometimes we just pray for the things we know we can't handle or for situations that need divine intervention but we have specific requests "Oh God, please touch this empty vessel I am dealing with, show them the error of their ways, show them your path (ie: the way I am thinking things should go)" and when God speaks and actually changes our course we are not happy and convince ourselves this must be a mistake, He could not actually want US to Do That! (Did He say it?) You believe 66 books but, when He speaks you are questioning it? Look at the creation record, nothingness responded to God's voice, waters parted when He spoke, shouldn't someone who is only slightly less than an angel, created in His image respond to His voice???
The story of Abram and Sarai is a great example of Faith, obedience, promise, Faith, reward, Faith, and punishment. See Genesis 12:2-9 for a great picture of faith and obedience. Do you see the connection. Hebrews 11:8 really makes this very clear. It says, He obeyed out of faith and went not knowing where he was going.
It does not say and he began questioning God, where am I going, what about food, is there good land, grass, what about the weather? It says he went.
As parents when we tell our children to do something we want them to do what we say immediately with out talking back because the trust us and respect our authority as the parent. We tell them this a million times, but do they see us obeying anyone, do they see us respecting anyone? Have they ever heard you tell a lie? Well, we know that lies weaken and eventually break our trust, do we think our kids TRUST us instinctively, even when we act and speak contray to what we teach. There is a saying "Walk the Walk and Talk the Talk" and "Practice what you Preach (Say)". There is a poem with I think comes from scripture, but I have not found it just yet, but it says Be careful what you say and do because little eyes are watching you and will one day become you and follow in your footsteps.
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