{"id":240,"date":"2018-04-21T17:41:41","date_gmt":"2018-04-21T21:41:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/actownsend.com\/MEOW\/?p=240"},"modified":"2018-04-21T17:42:05","modified_gmt":"2018-04-21T21:42:05","slug":"trust-and-obey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/actownsend.com\/MEOW\/trust-and-obey\/","title":{"rendered":"Trust and Obey"},"content":{"rendered":"

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by Melody K. Townsend<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Who loves practicing obedience? Raise your paws!<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2026anyone?…<\/span><\/p>\n

How about submission! Surrender? Letting go!<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2026no paws raised? Not even one?<\/span><\/p>\n

Not even mine.<\/span><\/p>\n

Cats are independent by nature. Like humans, we have the amazing ability to adapt to changing environments. We quickly learn boundaries and disciplines. We learn<\/em> them \u2013 but we don\u2019t always obey them!<\/span><\/p>\n

Obedience has long been viewed as a coerced behavior we are required to perform out of fear that we will be punished if we don\u2019t. This interpretation is upheld by our society and produces resentment. Resentful thoughts develop into active resistance when we are compelled to obey. We despise being forced into submission, and surrender is something many of us would rather die than do.<\/span><\/p>\n

Jesus introduced a new perspective when He defined obedience as an act of love: \u201cIf you love Me, you will obey my commandments.\u201d Obedience to God brings peace to you and throws the realm of spiritual darkness into chaos.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Obedience to God brings peace to you and throws the realm of spiritual darkness into chaos.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

<\/i>Click To Tweet<\/span><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n

Despite Jesus\u2019 teaching, obedience rarely crosses our minds, and when it does, \u201cHere am I Lord, send me,\u201d is not our first response.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sometimes we rebel. Sometimes we run. Sometimes we ignore the conviction to surrender our will and obey His word, choosing to wait in stubborn determination for Him to finally accept our excuses and go ask someone else to answer His call.<\/span><\/p>\n

And while we rebel and run and refuse, we offer God a substitute for the obedience He requests.<\/span><\/p>\n

Performance! What could be better than tangible, measurable proof of our efforts and successes on behalf of Christ? Humans work and accomplish and achieve. Accept accolades and awards. Sacrifice their health and their families to the stress of striving for perfection that does not exist outside the flawless grace of God. They teach and sing and volunteer and exhaust themselves in their efforts to be ideal representatives of the God whose still, small voice they pretend not to hear.<\/span><\/p>\n

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But God addressed this human tendency long before any of us were born. The prophet Samuel\u2019s reprimand shouts from the Old Testament: \u201cObedience is better than sacrifice!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

We were all created to praise and serve God. Enthusiastic participation in church and community activities are excellent ways to exemplify the character of Christ. His word makes it clear, however, that there is no substitute for obedience.<\/span><\/p>\n

Spiritual obedience is willingly, even eagerly, yielding yourself to the authority of God. It is a relationship in which you trust that His every decision will be made with the same overwhelming love through which Jesus became obedient to death on the cross.<\/span><\/p>\n

Obedience is resting securely in His care as He goes before you to clear the path and lead the way.<\/span><\/p>\n

Humans react to feline independence with varying degrees of admiration and frustration, as though unaware of their own efforts toward self-sufficiency and absolute control. But God brings us all into each other\u2019s lives for a reason! The next time you become annoyed at your feline companion for doing the opposite of what you want her to do, pause and reflect on your relationship with your Father. Are you answering His call, or pretending you don\u2019t hear His voice?<\/span><\/p>\n

God doesn\u2019t demand that you strive to impress Him. He doesn\u2019t require impossible results or illustrious standards of success. Your availability is of far more value to God than your ability.<\/span><\/p>\n

He desires your obedience, your love, and your trust.<\/span><\/p>\n

He listens for you to answer when He calls.<\/span><\/p>\n

And when you obey His request to surrender and submit to His authority, you will lay your\u00a0 burdens down and rest with confidence and peace in the arms of your almighty Father God – the Author of all good things in our Extra~Ordinary World.
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\nGo farther with God!\u00a0 Journey into the scripture references for Trust and Obey!<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Romans 6:16 NIV
\n<\/span>John 14:15
\n<\/span>Philippians 2:7-9
\n<\/span>Mark 4:35-41<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Melody K. Townsend Who loves practicing obedience? Raise your paws! \u2026anyone?… How about submission! Surrender? Letting go! \u2026no paws raised? Not even one? Not even mine. Cats are independent by nature. Like humans, we have the amazing ability to adapt to changing environments. We quickly learn boundaries and disciplines. We learn them \u2013 but…<\/p>\n

Continue<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[13,16,17,7],"class_list":["post-240","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-faith-hope-love","tag-cat","tag-inspiration","tag-melodys-extra-ordinary-world","tag-meow"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9JMNa-3S","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/actownsend.com\/MEOW\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/actownsend.com\/MEOW\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/actownsend.com\/MEOW\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/actownsend.com\/MEOW\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/actownsend.com\/MEOW\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=240"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/actownsend.com\/MEOW\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":246,"href":"https:\/\/actownsend.com\/MEOW\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240\/revisions\/246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/actownsend.com\/MEOW\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/actownsend.com\/MEOW\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/actownsend.com\/MEOW\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}