It happened again today. Though how it hit me may be too sensitive or personal for me to discuss here, here's a pretty general view of what I was led to think, and I'd like to share it with you.
(and please forgive me for the past few posts - I don't think I gave them my best, but praise God because He uses even conviction for the good of those who love Him)
Jesus said, "If you love Me, obey my commandments."
Would we still hold to this even when the command given to us was something we could not bear to do?
Some of us try to run. We can try to ignore God's specific command for us, mentally 'running' from Him - We flee like Jonah did, and eventually we will be brought to where we were supposed to be.
We can try to seek for counsel from other people, but we put ourselves in danger of hearing only what we want to hear, which is not necessarily in line with what is in the Will of God.
It's mentioned in the Bible that obedience is better than sacrifice, but I believe that there will always be a degree of sacrifice involved whenever we obey. Take time as an example. When our parents ask us to do something for them, we sacrifice the time we have that we could have spent for ourselves. For most of us, we obey our employers by sacrificing 5 days in a week for a paycheck.
Speaking of paychecks, we sacrifice our earnings so the bills could be paid. We sacrifice money to pay taxes. Professional photographers sacrifice the shutter life of their camera every time they take a picture while on the job. I would like think that when you are called to blog, you sacrifice a little of yourself for the rest of the world to see.
When we go to church, or when we read the Bible, we sacrifice the time we could have spent elsewhere (*SIDE COMMENT ALERT!* and sadly, many of us don't seem to want to make that sacrifice anymore). There is also something that is sacrificed when we no longer choose to join our friends for a cigarette or a simple drink.
When you think about it, just about EVERYTHING we do involves some sacrifice, more or less.
But that may be where many of us are wrong. What do we usually understand when we are asked to sacrifice something? Are we not being told to lose something we own?
Halleluyah, God be glorified in this!
What if it all wasn't ours in the first place? What if we start thinking - what if we BELIEVE that what we have was given to us by God?
I don't think I drove a point there. What if we believe that we have nothing in this world but what the Almighty God - yes, the King and Creator of the Universe, the Omnipotent, Omniscient, and Omnipresent Lord who is magnificent beyond what our fallible imagination can project - in His infinite wisdom has decreed that we are able to handle, in our own incomplete 'strength' and 'knowledge', to perform
His will?
We can use our cellphones to text others to be encouraged or to be brought closer to God.
We can post social networking status messages that minister to people.
We can use the 2 extra bucks we have to buy two pieces of pandesal (as of this writing) for that old lady down the street.
Our money, our time, our skills, our responsibilities, our relationships, even our trials - EVERYTHING we have, God has allowed us to have, and we are responsible for what we have in the sense that it should always be used for His Will, or we RISK losing it.
In spite of all this, I believe that we can still feel troubled to obey, especially if what we are led to think has to be done is to obey by sacrifice. My beloved reader, please do not make the mistake of running away, or hearing only what you want to hear... Go to the Lord. Talk to Him. Pray if you have to, pray harder if you must, but place your trust in Him by going to Him first.
Do we love Jesus? I challenge everyone who reads this (author included) to truly loving the Lord by committing to obey Him according to what the Word of God says.
To God be all the glory.
Sent from my iPhone