Trust and Obey?
While trust and obey are just three simple words, they are indeed among the most important and challenging words to all of us as Christians, especially to everyone standing for marriage restoration. And in several conversations today, the Lord showed me just how significant they really are, because I realized that the reason so many people struggle with obedience is that they don’t really trust God; if we don’t trust God, we can’t and won’t obey Him.
The pet phrase in many conversations I had today seemed to be “…it’s hard…I know, but it’s hard….” And no matter how much I try to be otherwise, I really have to admit that I don’t have much patience when those words just keep coming out of someone’s mouth. They’re SO totally contrary to the understanding we should have of God’s promise that we can do ALL things through Christ Jesus who strengthens us (Philippians 4:13) and that His grace is sufficient (2 Corinthians 12:9).
And it’s really hard to miss their significance when we read Hebrews 11:6, which says And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him. And that’s confirmed in Psalm 37:4-6, which says Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him and he will do this: He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, the justice of your cause like the noonday sun. And Proverbs 3:5-6 pretty much sums it all up, because it says Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.
The Men and women who keep saying how hard it is to stand for their marriages tend to be the same ones who are also very focused on everything their spouses do wrong; they don’t feel loved; how can they do that; that’s just wrong; I feel used…and on and on they tend to go. But as I heard one of the ladies I was talking to today saying a lot of that, I felt in my spirit that the Lord probably feels the same way about us sometimes! And that’s when I realized that our spouses aren’t any more unfaithful to us than we are, or have been, to God! Ouch! That hurts, but it is true just the same and it should be more than enough to get the attention of anyone who keeps making the devil’s job so much easier by speaking his will and plan into being instead of speaking the Word and will of God into their lives and marriages! As Proverbs 18:21 (AMP) warns; Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and they who indulge in it shall eat the fruit of it [for death or life]. And Jesus taught us that IF we love Him, we will obey Him ( John 14:15). So we all need to be a LOT more focused on demonstrating to the Lord just how much we REALLY love him, which we do only to the extent that we trust and obey Him. BUT when we do trust and obey God, there’s no end to the ways we will indeed be blessed and encouraged, because we’ll NEVER be disappointed when we put our hope in the Lord and the power and promise of His Word (Romans 5:5)!
God will make our crooked paths straight. He has made rivers in the desert and roads where there were no roads, and He can do this too. Nothing is impossible for God. Something I read that seems to fit here is that when we believe God’s word about healing, but then we keep repeating that “we are sick,” then we feel sick. So we need to just know what God promises and not worry about how we feel. Thanks for this message.
Each time I come back to the website to refresh and to marvel at everything God is doing in our marriages, it amazes me how the post that day really hits me every time. I feel that we make it hard, but it’s not hard if we leave everything in God’s hands. We make the mistake of taking it back time after time, and that is not the plan God has for us. Thank you for sharing this message and I continue to pray for strength and wisdom to complete God’s plan for our marriage!
A thought I had as well is that it seems so easy for people to believe that God sent His only Son to die for our sins. We believe that salvation is ours through the blood of Jesus, and why do we believe that? The Bible gives us the Word accordingly, so we can trust God for our salvation. But we cannot pick and choose the parts of His Word that we want to obey or trust Him for. We, as Christians (Bible honoring Christians) must believe the entire Bible, trusting and obeying in all of God’s Word. All of His promises are for us; not just the ones we happen to like, trust and/or obey or that someone tells us are true; but every last one of them. Most of us don’t ask our children to trust us a “little” or to obey us a “little”; we ask them to trust and obey us in everything because we love them and we would not lead them into something contrary to what we believe. We must be confident in the Word and confident that God will do what He says because He says it.