Fresh Manna
by Pastor Tim Burt
Have you ever thought of how important obedience is to parents concerning their children? Parents love obedience and when their children learn it and walk in it, the parents feel as though they are of the most blessed in the world.
When parents go through the teen years with their kids, they don’t think in terms of the word obedience so much anymore. Either their children have grown to the teen years having learned respect, a civil attitude, and reasonable compliance or they haven’t. By the time we are adults, we dump the word obedience. The very word obedience has the tendency to draw us back to memories of childhood. Adults think more in terms of, I am an adult and I can do what I want. Submission to any kind of authority is often in response to a paycheck, an incentive, or to avoid trouble. Adults like the word freedom and obedience seems like a constraint to that freedom.
Obedience never becomes less important to God. One reason God so wants children to learn obedience is because it sets them up to obey and follow Him and His Word. It also positions them to respectfully respond to authority as they become adults. Obedience to God’s word, builds core values and a moral compass that ultimately brings them to greater opportunities of success and blessing. Let me show you this truth through some verses and break them down for you so you can see the magnitude of them.
Exodus 19:5-6 says, “Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation…” Let me expound on the words of these verses. “…obey me fully” means to know obey God intelligently and attentively. It implies getting to know God’s character and His desires for us. That comes over time from reading and rereading the entire Bible and seeking understanding to it’s meaning. This includes growing in understanding of what godly behavior and godly living is. It’s more than that though. As you learn God’s Word and hide it in your heart, you’ll learn that He brings scriptures to memory and speaks to our hearts through them. It’s one of the ways God interacts with us—instructing and prompting our conscience to follow Him.
“Keep my covenant” means to understand that we are in a covenant relationship with God and to guard, protect and give attention to it’s importance. God has made Himself legally bound to us by the promises of His Word. He knows we will stumble and fall and fail to keep up our end! But His love will not fail and He will never fail to keep His Word to us!
The Lord says, “If you obey me fully and keep my covenant…,” then something precious will happen— “out of all the nations you will be my treasured possession.” This covenant promise started with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—to all the Jews—to Israel. They are who He raised up to bring the revelation of Himself to the world through. After the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, He gave us the chance to also walk in that covenant as a part of His family through our faith in Jesus. We are also called a part of God’s “treasured possession in all the earth.” We didn’t replace the Jews. We have become joint-heirs with them through Christ as we see in Galatians 3:28 (NIV). “There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” Are you starting to get the picture of how God feels about you? It is through the execution of obedience to Him that these blessings manifest in their fullest form.
God continues to tell us. “Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” This is God giving our lives purpose! We are to be an influence for Him in this earth no matter what our occupation is. The scripture helps you see God’s desire to use you no matter what your past was before making Him your Savior. He has called you to be a light in this dark world. 1 Timothy 1:16 (TLB) “But God had mercy on me so that Christ Jesus could use me as an example to show everyone how patient He is with even the worst sinners, so that others will realize that they, too, can have everlasting life. ”
God spoke these words through Moses to His people. They reach to us through Jesus Christ today. God tells us we are His treasured possession as we take in, learn, understand, and walk out obedience to His Word in our life. We make it practical by letting the world around us experience His love through us. We learn to communicate our faith, influence the world through and with it, and eventually lead others in it.
The learning of obedience—learning to obey God in the small and big things is what brings you into this special place of God. Is obedience important? It produces a life of supernatural blessing and purpose and the ability for you to become the leader and influencer that God wants you to be!
Deuteronomy 14:2 (NIV) “For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. Out of all the peoples on the face of the earth, the LORD has chosen you to be his treasured possession.”
In His love,
Pastor Tim Burt
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