Trust and Obey

These last couple of months have been some of the most interesting months of my life and, I venture to guess, yours, too. Not only has there been a pandemic to hit our whole world, and an EF4 tornado to devastate our church, school, and the surrounding neighborhoods--maybe even your own home--but there also seems to have been an unusual amount of death in our congregation and their families! I have asked myself over and over, Is this a dream? Every time I drive on campus to go to the office building--mind you, this is not a functioning office space by any means--I get a pit in my stomach. And, once again, I begin to think, This didn’t really happen, did it? Well, of course it did! I have eyes that can see! I know it did!

Through all of this, the Lord has been teaching and reaffirming to me His truths. My daily Bible reading, Pastor’s messages, and a book that I just finished all seem to be showing me very similar truths. In my daily Bible reading, I have been in the Old Testament from Jeremiah now all the way through the Minor Prophets. Through the Prophets, God is constantly asking for repentance and obedience. What I have learned most recently is that God demands our obedience. When we obey, we must trust God and this leads to faith. For instance: Jonah originally chose not to obey God; therefore, he denied himself the privilege of trusting in God. He knew the people of Nineveh would repent, and Jonah did not want to have faith or believe that regardless of his opinion about Nineveh, God knew best. Jonah wanted to be the judge of the fate of the residents of Nineveh. Of course, eventually after God got his attention, Jonah did go to Nineveh and they did repent. Jonah was not happy about that either. He did not think the wicked people of Nineveh deserved the opportunity of salvation. Not Jonah’s decision! What Jonah did not know is that 150 years later, Nineveh would be destroyed by the Babylonians. Lesson 1: Trust God even when it seems to make no sense.

Yesterday, I finished reading a book entitled The Insanity of God. This book is written by Dr. Nik Ripken who spent 25 years as a missionary in some of the most difficult places in the world--places where persecution was a way of life for most believers. The last 15 years he and his wife traveled, gathering data from interviews with believers in areas of the world where persecution of Christians was the normal. And, while the stories of those believers are incredible, it was Dr. Ripken’s insight that got my attention. He looked at things differently--or maybe the way I believe they should be looked at, but I could never quite put it into words. Things like reasons to risk your life or go to prison should not be that you took unnecessary chances that really didn’t advance the spread of the gospel, but should be that you were doing what was necessary to spread the gospel. Currently, I am not too concerned with going to prison because of my faith, but in this same vein it was pointed out that God does not ignore the consequences of our personal choices. We should not be cavalier and take risks assuming God will protect us. It might work out just fine, but what if it does not? Is that God’s fault? He expects us to make wise choices, which leads back to obeying, trusting, and growing our faith. Lesson 2: Do not expect God to excuse and dismiss consequences of the bad choices we make.

Growing our faith, isn’t that what Pastor Adam has been talking about? In the Sunday morning services, we have been working through Hebrews 11 and recently thinking about Abraham. Abraham was certainly obedient and did what God asked, and as he did, trust grew and his faith became stronger. I think of Abraham taking that journey with Isaac. Did Abraham really believe that God was going to demand Isaac as the sacrifice or was this a test of Abraham’s faith? In some ways I think that the answer was yes and yes. Abraham obeyed and did what was asked and God provided. As he obeyed, he was trusting God for what was best.  Lesson #3 for me is that everything we do in obedience to God will help grow our faith. It might not be easy, in fact, it will probably not be easy, but then the Christian life was never meant to be easy. 

See how all this seems to come together? How three different resources all seem to point in a similar direction? Obedience, trust, and faith . . . the more we listen to and obey God, the more opportunities we have to trust him, and the more we trust, the stronger our faith becomes. This was not some new revelation to me, but it was and has been a comforting reminder of God and His faithfulness. So regardless of our circumstances, God is good, but He does demand our obedience, and when we obey we are rewarded with a peace that comes from trusting Him and  knowing our faith is not in vain. 

Pam Dratnol