Have you ever sung the song, “Trust and Obey”? It’s a beautiful song that speaks to our submission to God. The chorus goes like this,
“Trust and obey, for there’s no other way
To be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.”
There is one word that will reveal if someone’s faith in God is genuine. And that word is obedience. In James 2:19, the Apostle James teaches that belief is not enough. For even the devil believes and fears God but will not submit to God’s authority.
The Apostle John said in John 14:15, ‘if you love me, you will keep my commandments.” It is not enough just to believe in Jesus, the bottom line with God is obedience. Those that keep His commandments are those that have come to know Him. (1 John 2:3-5).
Every single aspect of our Christian life hinges on our obedience to God. Our obedience is crucial to our spiritual happiness. It’s indispensable to our spiritual health. It is vitally critical to our spiritual holiness.
Obedience is taking up your cross daily and following close to Jesus (Luke 9:23). Without the cross there is no crown. There is no redemption without suffering.
The American church has forgotten about the cost. It has reinvented itself to appeal to our uncontrollable desires and our extravagant living. While the church has succeeded in making herself acceptable to many it has abandoned the cross.
This doesn’t mean you have to deny yourself every pleasure of life. Or to pledge to live in poverty. But it does mean that whatever you do, you must do it as you are working for God. Not for human gain, but to bring glory to God, and to His Kingdom. (Colossians 3:23-24). Let’s become a people, who put the cross back into the center of everything we do. And this is Jesse Walker with the Glenwood Church of Christ.
