Inconveniently Obedient

"Today's Devotion" For July 20, 2005

Read: I Peter 1:13-25; Psalm 143

INCOVENIENTLY OBEDIENT

"As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as He who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do..." (I Peter 1:14,15)

The caller on the other end of the phone was desperate. The pastor who answered the phone could hear the anxiety and pain in her voice. He tried to calm her down, but she was so wound up he didn't think he'd ever make any sense out of what she was saying. Slowly, after much gentle coaxing, the woman on the other end began to calm down. It seemed the woman was living with a man that she wanted to marry, but he didn't want to commit to her. She was desperately seeking a solution to this dilemma. She was calling to ask the pastor to pray that the man would marry her, if it was God's will, or for the man to leave her life. Of course, she wasn't willing to stop living with him as long as he was still around.

We're funny that we, we human beings. We want things to go our way, to fit our agendas, and we'll go to any lengths to manipulate circumstances to our favor. While the woman on the phone wanted "God's will" to determine her relationship with the man she was living with, in reality she didn't really care about His will. The fact that she was living with the man outside of marriage indicates her selectivity in obeying God's will. It's a selective obedience that's a part of our lives as well. For all the lip service we pay that we want to live our lives according to God's will, Sin truly keeps us from recognizing His will, much less doing it. Like the woman on the phone, too often we're only willing to focus on that portion of God's will that's convenient for us, a sort of "selective obedience" for convenience.

Thank God that He doesn't love us only when it's convenient. Thank God that He doesn't forgive us of all of our sins only when it's convenient. God's love for us in Jesus Christ is not an act of convenience. It cost Jesus His life on the Cross, as He bore the sins of the whole world on His head. He took the punishment that we deserve for our disobedience upon Himself, willingly and lovingly, according to God's will. Jesus' every action was in accordance with the Father's will, no matter how inconvenient it might have been. Jesus was "inconveniently obedient" so that we might be forgiven of our sins. By the power of His Word and Spirit, we faithfully live "inconveniently obedient" to the praise and glory of our Father in heaven.

Prayer: Father, it's really very easy for me to be "selectively obedient" to Your Will. I'd rather live life my way; not Your way. So often I'm willing to seek Your will when it's convenient for me to do so, and to ignore Your will when it gets in the way of my desires. Forgive me, gracious Father, for my disobedience and, by the power of Your Word and Spirit, lead me to seek to truly do Your will, no matter the "inconvenience." Let my life, reborn in Christ Jesus, be a living example of faithful living and service to You and others. Let my life always reflect Your love and forgiveness, no matter how inconvenient it might be, so that Your name may be glorified, and many will come to know Your great love in Christ as I do. In Jesus' precious and most holy name I pray. Amen.
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--Pastor Boeck

Copyright @ 2005 Rev. Richard J. Boeck, Jr. All rights reserved.