Obedience is Hard

I was praying earlier today and I realized how easy it was for me to simply believe in God. As Christians I'm sure many of us have moved way past the level of believing whether God exists or not. To us and myself, God is more real than the very fingers on our hands. But we all understand that just believing in God is NOT good enough....we also have to OBEY Him! We believe in God: very good, but then again, so what? The demons in hell also believe in God and fear Him too! As a matter of fact, now that I think of it, the demons may be a bit more spiritually wiser than mankind because they also know that Jesus Christ is Lord. Can we say the same thing about many humans on earth? So believing in God is not enough, we must obey and follow God also.

Obedience to the Lord doesn't always tend to be easy either. While I was praying I asked God to make obeying Him as easy as believing in Him, but a wave suddenly hit me. I then realized Obedience to the Lord is often hard. Jesus Christ, the Son of God Himself, died by being obedient to God until the end. Jesus Christ's entire life was very difficult as He didn't even have a home during His ministry. Most of the apostles themselves also died by being obedient to Christ until the end. I honestly don't think that just believing in Christ the Son and God the Father is enough anymore. The Lord Himself says that the path to righteousness and God is a narrow path that few find. It hurts me too because sometimes I think if I am always following this path. It is written that He who endures until the END shall be saved. Becoming saved doesn't mean just uttering a few words of acceptance and then going about your own passions. Becoming saved really means that you have to glorify the Lord with your life and not cease until the day you die. When you are under the Lord, you no longer live for yourself...you live for God.

One way of getting better at obedience to God is always focusing on Christ. Keep your eyes fixed towards Jesus and you will improve in all ways. That is how we can overcome sin and our own hearts is by focusing everything on Jesus Christ. The higher we climb the ladder, the more well trained in obedience to the Lord we will get. Think of troops in the military. When they first enter, they have trouble shouldering their arms and marching. But as time goes on they get better and more disciplined. It's like that with the Lord. The more we follow God and become obedient to Him, the more stronger and obedient we become.

Sometimes I wonder if I lose everything and I'm broken, homeless, dirty, torn, and frail; will I still glorify God? Will I still be obedient even until the long painful end? We must all think about this as well. Talk is cheap, so let's not all proudly say we'll glorify God always and then deny Him 3 times before the rooster crows. Instead let us do these things by action. Let's be obedient to God everyday and take up our cross and follow the Lord as He commanded.