Trust and Obey
I recently returned from one of the many chapel sessions I have attended at my school, Northwest University. Today's message stood out, though. We all had the fortunate experience of hearing a loved and respected professor, Dr. Webster, speak today on submitting to God. Being a professor of literature, writing, and what's more a sincere man of God, his message was relayed with clarity, beauty, and an excellent vocabulary which forced my ears and mind to have no respite in their interaction with the message. Dr. Webster, I must say, is one of the most inspiring and delightful people I've ever had the pleasure of meeting. I am honored to be a student in his writing class this semester. Although I could write significantly more of his character, passion, etc., the fact of the matter is I am not here to write about him. He served only as a catalyst, causing me to remember God's goodness and capable hands.
God. He is good, is He not? Loving, patient, powerful, fatherly, and every pleasant abstract word under the sun. I know this to be true, but if that is really so then why do I take my life's matters into my own hands? The way to submit to God is a simple matter, really. It's contained in one small phrase my good friend once told me - trust and obey. Why, then, does its execution prove to be so difficult time and time again? Father Mapple stated in Herman Melville's Moby Dick this quote:
"But all the things that God would have us do are hard for us to do - remember that - and hence, He oftener commands us than endeavors to persuade. And if we obey God, we must disobey ourselves; and it is in this disobeying ourselves, wherein the hardness of obeying God consists."
I remember when I was about seventeen years old, I disobeyed my parents (thus disobeying God) significantly and blatantly. Starting from that point on, for a year I chose to defile relationships I had with a handful of people, one to an extreme, that I cared about very much. And it was all due to my unwillingness to submit. I didn't know it, but my heart and mind began to darken with selfish ambition simply because I had refused to trust God, He who knew me best. It would have been hard and required much patience to obey Him, but it would have been infinitely better. Rather, I foolishly obeyed myself. The consequences were of a very painful nature. The wound on my heart still aches today, two years later. However, I know God allowed me to disobey Him in order that through the healing process I might become both stronger and learn what His kind of love is. Although the pain still comes and goes, there is no reason to dwell on the past because, of course, what is always the next step? To trust in God from A to B, from bad to good, from this to that, from place to place. He is always with us ready to take the next step.
But in the wise words of Father Mapple, we must never forget this: All things that God would have us do are hard for us to do. The good news is, He gives us the strength, love, patience, whatever it is we need to accomplish the tasks He gives us. We are free in Christ to do the will of the Lord, through joy and through toil. The important thing is to trust in Him, which is to obey Him.
"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11
God. He is good, is He not? Loving, patient, powerful, fatherly, and every pleasant abstract word under the sun. I know this to be true, but if that is really so then why do I take my life's matters into my own hands? The way to submit to God is a simple matter, really. It's contained in one small phrase my good friend once told me - trust and obey. Why, then, does its execution prove to be so difficult time and time again? Father Mapple stated in Herman Melville's Moby Dick this quote:
"But all the things that God would have us do are hard for us to do - remember that - and hence, He oftener commands us than endeavors to persuade. And if we obey God, we must disobey ourselves; and it is in this disobeying ourselves, wherein the hardness of obeying God consists."
I remember when I was about seventeen years old, I disobeyed my parents (thus disobeying God) significantly and blatantly. Starting from that point on, for a year I chose to defile relationships I had with a handful of people, one to an extreme, that I cared about very much. And it was all due to my unwillingness to submit. I didn't know it, but my heart and mind began to darken with selfish ambition simply because I had refused to trust God, He who knew me best. It would have been hard and required much patience to obey Him, but it would have been infinitely better. Rather, I foolishly obeyed myself. The consequences were of a very painful nature. The wound on my heart still aches today, two years later. However, I know God allowed me to disobey Him in order that through the healing process I might become both stronger and learn what His kind of love is. Although the pain still comes and goes, there is no reason to dwell on the past because, of course, what is always the next step? To trust in God from A to B, from bad to good, from this to that, from place to place. He is always with us ready to take the next step.
But in the wise words of Father Mapple, we must never forget this: All things that God would have us do are hard for us to do. The good news is, He gives us the strength, love, patience, whatever it is we need to accomplish the tasks He gives us. We are free in Christ to do the will of the Lord, through joy and through toil. The important thing is to trust in Him, which is to obey Him.
"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11
Write those words!!
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