I've been reading Being God's Friend by Charles Spurgeon (one of my favorite authors) and I thought I would just breeze through it. It's a small book, but so meaty. Actually I've read the first chapter probably five times now. I'm praying that the Truths in it will truly cause my heart to change! The first chapter is called The Obedience of Faith. The first time I read it, I was thinking of my girls and how this applies to them, but then I felt the Lord was showing me that I need to be seeking Him on how this applies to ME and my relationship with HIM. Here are some quotes...
He draws from Hebrews 11:8
"By FAITH Abraham when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went."
Obedience that is not cheerfully rendered is not the obedience of the heart, and, consequently, is of little worth before God. If a person obeys because he has no choice in the matter, and would rebel if he had the opportunity, there is nothing in his obedience. The obedience of faith springs from an internal principle and not from external compulsion. It is sustained by the mind's most sober reasoning and the heart's warmest passion.
It happens in this way: A person reasons with himself that he ought to obey his Redeemer, his Father, his God; and at the same time, the love of Christ constrains him to do so. Therefore, what argument suggests, affection performs. A sense of great obligation, and understanding of the justness of obedience, and a spiritual renewal of the heart produce an obedience that becomes essential to the sanctified soul. Therefore, he is not relaxed in the time of temptation or destroyed in the hour of losses and sufferings. There is no trial of life that can turn the gracious soul from his passion for obedience...
We must have faith in the rightness of all that God says or does. I hope that you do not think of God's sovereignty as tyranny or imagine that He ever could or would will anything except what is right. Neither should we admit into our minds a suspicion that the Word of God is incorrect in any matter whatever, as though the Lord Himself could err. We will not have it that God, in His Holy Book, makes mistakes about matters of history or science anymore than He does about the great truths of salvation. If the Lord is God, He must be infallible; and if He can be described as being in error in the little respects of human history and science, He cannot be trusted in the greater matters...(That also means that Romans 8:28 is TRUE and that what He has ordained for our lives, even when we don't understand why, is for our GOOD and His GLORY...even if it doesn't seem so at the present time.)
Our service to our LORD is FREEDOM. We want to yield to His will. To delight Him is our delight. It is a blessed thing when the inmost nature yearns to obey God, when obedience grows into a habit and becomes the very element in which the spirit breathes. Surely this should be the case with every one of the blood-washed children of the Most High, and their lives will prove that it is so. Others are also bound to obey, but we should attend most to our own personal obligations and set our own houses in order. Obedience should begin at home, and it will find its hands full enough there...
As gold is to inferior metals, so is our trust in God to all our other trusts...You must have a paramount faith in God, or else the will of God will not be a sovereign rule to you. Only a reigning faith will make us subject to its power, so that we will be obedient to the Lord in all things...
Abraham immediately responded to the command of God. Delayed obedience is disobedience. Continued delay of duty is a continuous sin. If I do not obey the divine command, I sin; and every moment that I continue in that condition, I repeat the sin...
Obedience is for the present tense; it must be prompt, or it is nothing. Obedience respects the time of the command as much as any other part of it. To hesitate is to be disloyal. To stop and consider whether or not you will obey is rebellion in the seed...
Obedience may appear difficult, and it may bring sacrifice with it, but after all, it is the nearest and the best road (see Proverbs 3:17)...
Faith that produces obedience is a kind of life that needs great grace. Those who profess faith but who are not diligent in practicing it will not live in this way. Maintaining the faith that obeys in everything requires watchfulness and prayer and nearness to God. Beloved, "he giveth more grace" (James 4:6). The Lord will enable you to add to your faith all the virtues.
He draws from Hebrews 11:8
"By FAITH Abraham when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went."
Obedience that is not cheerfully rendered is not the obedience of the heart, and, consequently, is of little worth before God. If a person obeys because he has no choice in the matter, and would rebel if he had the opportunity, there is nothing in his obedience. The obedience of faith springs from an internal principle and not from external compulsion. It is sustained by the mind's most sober reasoning and the heart's warmest passion.
It happens in this way: A person reasons with himself that he ought to obey his Redeemer, his Father, his God; and at the same time, the love of Christ constrains him to do so. Therefore, what argument suggests, affection performs. A sense of great obligation, and understanding of the justness of obedience, and a spiritual renewal of the heart produce an obedience that becomes essential to the sanctified soul. Therefore, he is not relaxed in the time of temptation or destroyed in the hour of losses and sufferings. There is no trial of life that can turn the gracious soul from his passion for obedience...
We must have faith in the rightness of all that God says or does. I hope that you do not think of God's sovereignty as tyranny or imagine that He ever could or would will anything except what is right. Neither should we admit into our minds a suspicion that the Word of God is incorrect in any matter whatever, as though the Lord Himself could err. We will not have it that God, in His Holy Book, makes mistakes about matters of history or science anymore than He does about the great truths of salvation. If the Lord is God, He must be infallible; and if He can be described as being in error in the little respects of human history and science, He cannot be trusted in the greater matters...(That also means that Romans 8:28 is TRUE and that what He has ordained for our lives, even when we don't understand why, is for our GOOD and His GLORY...even if it doesn't seem so at the present time.)
Our service to our LORD is FREEDOM. We want to yield to His will. To delight Him is our delight. It is a blessed thing when the inmost nature yearns to obey God, when obedience grows into a habit and becomes the very element in which the spirit breathes. Surely this should be the case with every one of the blood-washed children of the Most High, and their lives will prove that it is so. Others are also bound to obey, but we should attend most to our own personal obligations and set our own houses in order. Obedience should begin at home, and it will find its hands full enough there...
As gold is to inferior metals, so is our trust in God to all our other trusts...You must have a paramount faith in God, or else the will of God will not be a sovereign rule to you. Only a reigning faith will make us subject to its power, so that we will be obedient to the Lord in all things...
Abraham immediately responded to the command of God. Delayed obedience is disobedience. Continued delay of duty is a continuous sin. If I do not obey the divine command, I sin; and every moment that I continue in that condition, I repeat the sin...
Obedience is for the present tense; it must be prompt, or it is nothing. Obedience respects the time of the command as much as any other part of it. To hesitate is to be disloyal. To stop and consider whether or not you will obey is rebellion in the seed...
Obedience may appear difficult, and it may bring sacrifice with it, but after all, it is the nearest and the best road (see Proverbs 3:17)...
Faith that produces obedience is a kind of life that needs great grace. Those who profess faith but who are not diligent in practicing it will not live in this way. Maintaining the faith that obeys in everything requires watchfulness and prayer and nearness to God. Beloved, "he giveth more grace" (James 4:6). The Lord will enable you to add to your faith all the virtues.
2 comments:
Oh, what food for thought!
Love,
Mama
*sigh* I miss our kitchen conversations.
Thank you for posting this- I am deeply convicted and challenged. My motivation is so regularly skewed.
Praise God for sending Jesus- oh how I need a Rescuer. Pretty sure I need to read this book.
I love you!!!
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