Hi how are you all today? I am good and have had a great weekend of catch ups with Christian women and writers and then a worship and prayer rally last Saturday night in our region. It was a great night of love and unity between the churches.
This week I want to look at obeying without seeing. When we were little children, our parents taught us to obey by seeing. They said things like hold my hand before we cross the road, don’t touch the hot stove, be kind and respect your teachers etc.
We could actually see what we were supposed to do or were not supposed to do.
The kingdom of God, however, is an upside down kingdom. We are taught to obey God before we can see. This can be called faith but faith is so much more. Faith is believing before seeing.
The greatest example of obeying before seeing is when Jesus went to the cross.
Hebrews 12:2 in the Message Bible states:
Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we’re in. Study how he did it. Because he never lost sight of where he was headed—that exhilarating finish in and with God—he could put up with anything along the way: Cross, shame, whatever. And now he’s there, in the place of honor, right alongside God.
Jesus knew that He was going to the cross and He went there with joy knowing that He was being obedient to the Father. He went to the cross not knowing if one person was going to accept His sacrifice and be reconciled to the Father but He did it anyway.
If He had looked at the stories in the Old Testament, they would not have given Him much hope.
Noah built the ark and preached about a flood for 120 years and only His family was saved.
Daniel’s three friends stood against the kings command to bow down to the idol and they were thrown into the fiery furnace. Only three stood even though there were many Israeli exiles in the land at the time as they were in captivity.
Lots family and servants were too many so Abraham told Him to choose land and he would go the other way. Later when the angels rescued Lot from the city there was only four left- his family.
These people obeyed even though they couldn’t see what was on the other side of their obedience.
Another story of obeying without seeing is Esther. Her story is found in the book of Esther. The king was looking for a new wife and her cousin Mordecai instructed her to go to the palace with all the other young women.
This was a risky thing that Esther did. If she wasn’t chosen to be Queen then she would spend the rest of her life in the Kings haram. Because the king had been with her, it was impossible for her to get married to any other man. Esther had to obey without seeing what God had in store for her. This took great trust!
However her story turned out well and she was made queen. But that wasn’t the end of the story. A wicked man made a decree signed by the king that he was going to kill all the Jews. He didn’t know the queen was a Jew.
Mordecai asked Esther to go to the king and try and get the decree reversed and then he told her that famous verse we all live in Esther 4:12 to 14 and in the Message Bible it states:
When Hathach told Mordecai what Esther had said, Mordecai sent her this message: “Don’t think that just because you live in the king’s house you’re the one Jew who will get out of this alive. If you persist in staying silent at a time like this, help and deliverance will arrive for the Jews from someplace else; but you and your family will be wiped out. Who knows? Maybe you were made queen for just such a time as this.”
We can be like Esther obeying God before seeing anything. God requires our obedience and maybe like Esther our obedience will change a city, a country, the world or maybe our neighbourhood.
Following God is a continual journey of obeying before seeing. So don’t get disheartened. When you hear God tell you to do something; just obey. You have no idea what’s on the other side of your obedience.
Bless you and keep living the life God intended.
Karen
0 Comments