The Benefits of Obedience

Obedience to the Lord’s will is often filled with difficulties, especially when you are dealing with people and situations of the world. I have a friend who is going through a tough time with a tenant in his building. He allowed these folks to have office space, free of charge, for a given amount of time as their business transitioned from one owner to the next.

They said they only needed a few months to get settled from the changes before they would find and move into their own offices. Unfortunately they chose to abuse his offer and a few months have turned into more than a year with no end in sight. The company is family owned and operated by several siblings that often do not get along with each other. Fighting is a daily occurrence.

At times the squabbling would reach a fever pitch making operating my friends business difficult, if not impossible. He deals with the public, so a professional atmosphere is an absolute must. After much prayer and council, he knew he had no choice but to ask them to find their own office space. It was a difficult decision, he has known the family for many years.

The peace he has gained by being obedient to what the Lord asked him to do is forth coming. Even though the other business will be in his building for another week or so, He can see what the Lord has on the horizon for him through the obedience of this hard decision.

To often we would like everything in life to be ‘mess free’. It simply does not work that way. What hard thing is the Lord asking you to do today?

Blessings

The Benefits of Obedience
by Os Hillman

“This is what the Lord says-your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: ‘I am the Lord your God, who teaches you what is best for you, who directs you in the way you should go.’” Isaiah 48:17

My career has been in marketing and advertising. Early on, I learned to distinguish the difference between features and benefits. Features represent characteristics of a product or service. Benefits are those things that directly profit or benefit me by using the product or service. For instance, my new computer has incredible speed and lots of memory (feature). This allows me to do things more quickly and easily (benefit). People are more concerned about the benefits than the features.

God tells us in the above verse that there are some direct benefits to the features of His nature. He is a God who is committed to teaching His children in the way they should go. What is the real benefit of His teaching? He answers this in the next verse. “If only you had paid attention to My commands, your peace would have been like a river, your righteousness like the waves of the sea” (Is. 48:18). The Lord tells us that the benefit of allowing God to teach us and lead us in the way is peace and righteousness. Here is a guaranteed promise from God. I often use guarantees in my advertising claims. Here is God’s immutable guarantee: You will have peace like a river and righteousness like the waves of the sea! What a great promise!

Are you trusting God with the very details of your life so that He can lead you in the way you should go? Are you allowing Him to teach you? Seek the Lord today for what He wants to teach you and allow Him to lead you, and you will ensure peace and righteousness in your life.