What Does Obedience to God look like? - Monday

Good morning!  Alright, so let's get started!

Yesterday morning we started to answer the question "Where does obedience to God start?" by discovering that Jesus told us that we have to love God with our whole being.  Jesus also said that along with loving God with all we are, we also have to love others as we do ourselves.  These are the two most important commandments.  It's only once we start doing these two things that we can start being obedient to God.

So this week on the blog we're gonna answer the question "What does obedience to God look like?".  We're gonna look at 5 different ways that our obedience to God can show up.

Let's start off by reading Joshua 22:5....that's right actually grab your Bible this morning, and open it up and read a little bit....just one tiny verse!

In this verse, Joshua gives us several things we can do to show our obedience to God.  So today, let's look at the first one...

Obedience is loving God.


Joshua starts this verse off by reminding the people to follow the commandments and laws that were given to them and the first thing he reminds them to do is "to love the Lord your God..."

What does it mean to love God?  How does your obedience relate to loving God?

Think about this.....several of you have your driver's licenses....several still don't but you can still play along.  Have you guys ever been given a speeding ticket?  If you have ever had a speeding ticket then you know there is a large price to pay for not obeying the speed limit....usually $100 at the least....just for going a little faster than you're supposed to.

There is also a huge price to pay for not obeying God's rules.  God does not give us rules and laws to hold us back from having fun.  He gives us rules to protect us from things that cause us harm, shame, or pain.

See, God wants us to be very careful in our obedience to Him.  God wants what is best for us but we have to be willing to follow and obey his commandments.  God has a perfect plan for our lives and that plan can only be carried out when we love God and obey God.  Loving Him shows true obedience to God!

Think about these things this morning:

Have you ever felt like God wanted you to do something and you didn't?  What was it?

Did it ever bother you to know that you disobeyed God?

Did you know at that very moment that you had disobeyed God or did you figure it out later?

If you could go back and have a "do over," what would you do differently?  Why?

So I know that our first example of loving God is a repeat from yesterday morning, but I just want to emphasize how important it is to love God.  If you don't truly love God, then you're going to find it very hard, if not impossible, to do the next 4 things that we found suggested in this verse.

Spend some time in prayer this morning, even if you haven't done it in a long time, and just ask God to help you love Him, love His Word, love the things He cares about, and to love Him even when things around you aren't the way you think they should be.  Our first way to show obedience to God is to love Him!

Feel free to post any questions or thoughts here on the blog.....or just drop me a note to let me know you're reading it!!  See you back here at the blog tomorrow morning!

Heffe