Trust and Obey
“if I obey Jesus Christ in the haphazard circumstances, they become pinholes through which I see the face of God . . . “ Oswald Chambers
In today’s fast-paced society, it isn’t always clear how to live a Christian life. We are preoccupied with making a living, being there for our own families, or pursuing a variety of interests.
If we want to learn a life of obedience, it’s essential to first spend time really listening: meditating on God’s Word, coming to know and trust His providence towards us. Then we can become a channel to bless others.
As we listen to God’s heart, we want to see that all have opportunities to learn or to work at jobs that receive fair wages. It’s important that everyone has access to good housing and health care. One of the joys of being obedient as a church is in our collective response to God’s love for order and harmony, His desire to provide for everyone’s needs. We can be a place that welcomes the community, but also impacts the community as we contribute and work together in interdenominational outreach. People can flourish and grow in this kind of environment.
In both community and our individual lives, that path of obedience will not always be clear. Sometimes we must just take the first step in faith. Author Elisabeth Elliott, as a grieving widow with a young daughter to raise, learned that the best approach was to focus on doing the next right thing, not on the months or years that stretched ahead.
Or perhaps it’s just doing the next ordinary thing right, like household chores or getting groceries or reaching out to another person. Do the next right thing, or the next thing right.
At times obedience can mean just to take a stand, to pray, or to be willing to stand in the gap so that a goal can be accomplished. “They also serve who only stand and wait,” wrote the English poet, John Milton. It may be uncomfortable, and sometimes feel a bit foolish, but God honours the waiting. Eugene Peterson calls this “long obedience in the same direction.”
There may be long periods of time when we don’t see any tangible results, but we are lifelong apprentices, learning to trust and obey through the example that Jesus lived for us.
Trust and obey, for there’s no other way
To be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.
Daniel Brink Towner, John Henry Sammis