Hello friend,
“For as the human body apart from the Spirit is lifeless – so faith apart from [its] works of obedience is also dead” — James 2:26 (AMP)
Faith does not mean – do nothing! So many times I have observed people being desperate for change in their lives, yet not doing anything to bring about the change. We all want the blessings in life. We don’t always want to do what needs to be done in order to walk in the blessings.
God’s Word is pretty clear – without obedience it doesn’t matter how much faith we have – nothing is going to change.
Obedience is Freedom
When I talk about obedience it is easy to go to the extreme of legalism. Godly obedience does not mean legalism. It does mean surrendering our lives to God and exchanging our will for His will. Obedience is about doing the “next right thing”, even when we don’t “feel” like doing it. When we are walking in obedience we are more concerned with what God wants us to do in our lives than what we want to do. Obedience is often but not always uncomfortable as our flesh wants control and is fighting with allowing the Spirit to control.
Obedience is Fully Surrendered
For over 20 years I worked with people struggling to recover from addictions. The truth is some sadly did not make it. When I reflect on this I can’t help but note that most of the ones that did not make it are also the ones that struggled with surrendering and obedience. They would talk about having faith that God could change their lives. Then when God gave them direction of what they needed to do to make the change, they were unwilling to fully surrender.
Surrendering and walking in obedience towards God is a choice. Mixing your faith with your surrender and willingness to be obedient to God’s direction and guidance – freedom and blessings await you. In all honesty I am not always successful in this, I am a work in progress. I am grateful that God gives me grace to try again.
Prayer
Lord, reveal to me where I am lacking in this. Show me where I haven’t been obedient to Your direction. I pray that You will reveal to me what it is that You want me to do? I am tired of struggling in my own will and seeing no lasting movement forward in my life. My heart’s desire is to have Your will be the center of my life. I am not always sure what that is, as sometimes I think it gets muddled with my own will. When I reflect on this it saddens my heart. Teach me Lord. Please reveal truth to me. Today I am choosing to surrender and am wanting to do an exchange – my will for Your will in my life.
In Jesus Name ~ ~ ~ Amen
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Do you struggle with surrendering Your will to God? Is there an area in your life that you have faith that God will change but you are not being obedient to what He is asking you to do? I want to encourage you to take another step in your faith journey – mix your faith with being obedient to His word.
Let me know in the comments as I would love to hear from you and pray for you too.
Are you interested in reading more of my devotionals? I am including a link for you:
Victorious Living — Devotions – click on link
A great bible resource that you can use to read a vast assortment of bible translations:
Bible Gateway — click on link ❤️
Blessings ❤️
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Great insights! I used to treat God more like a cosmic vending machine -ask and you shall receive without much thought to His will. I, too, am grateful for the chance to keep surrendering to His will, not mine. Also, love the whipped cream mixing photo. I won’t look at whipped cream the same anymore!
I think we are almost programmed to look at God like a cosmic vending machine. I recently heard the term Santa-god but I like your analogy better. I am learning — and relearning that in order to grow into mature faith I must experience pain and trials. This is not easy but I truly am no longer satisfied with the milk of the Word. Blessings to you my friend 💞💞😊💞💞
Thank you so much for sharing this Shelley! I always love reading your article but sometimes I couldn’t just have a time to leave a comment. What you mean by others don’t make it?
Sadly it means that they die due to their addiction and choices or they never find recovery from it.