Called to Obey

Deuteronomy 8:6 NLT – So obey the commands of the Lord your God by walking in his ways and fearing him.

While I was looking through the scriptures for joy, something seemed to jump out at me.  So many of the references tied up joy with obedience to God.  That is something that seems almost counter cultural to us right now.  There seems to be such a culture of thrill and happiness when being free and doing your own thing.  Our inner spirit of rebellion tends to want to steer us away from being in submission to someone.

Given that this study I’ve been doing has to do with how my family should look biblically, it makes sense that submission to God, as my father, would be the basis of learning to submit to my husband.

Psalms 119:1-5, 8 NLT – Joyful are people of integrity, who follow the instructions of the Lord . Joyful are those who obey his laws and search for him with all their hearts. They do not compromise with evil, and they walk only in his paths. You have charged us to keep your commandments carefully. Oh, that my actions would consistently reflect your decrees! I will obey your decrees. Please don’t give up on me!

As a child of parents, I instruct my children out of love for them.  I hope with all my heart that they will follow the ways I instruct them in.  I don’t know how many times I have said to my son that I’m not just giving him rules or instructions to make his life miserable.  I’m instructing him because I want to keep him from harm.  I want him to walk in blessing.

The rules that God gives us are the same.  It’s about following his way, because that is the way of blessing.  That is the way of life.

Deuteronomy 30:15-16, 19 NIV –  See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction.  For I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess.
This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live.

He is calling me, as his daughter, to choose life, not only for my sake, but for the sake of my kids.  To obey his commands.  In this will my joy be found.

Hebrews 12:7-11 NLT – As you endure this divine discipline, remember that God is treating you as his own children. Who ever heard of a child who is never disciplined by its father? If God doesn’t discipline you as he does all of his children, it means that you are illegitimate and are not really his children at all. Since we respected our earthly fathers who disciplined us, shouldn’t we submit even more to the discipline of the Father of our spirits, and live forever? For our earthly fathers disciplined us for a few years, doing the best they knew how. But God’s discipline is always good for us, so that we might share in his holiness. No discipline is enjoyable while it is happening—it’s painful! But afterward there will be a peaceful harvest of right living for those who are trained in this way.