Blessed Obedience - The One Year At His Feet Devotional
Blessed Obedience
Read: Luke 11:14-28
“Blessed . . . are those who hear the word of God and obey it.”
Luke 11:28
“Obedience is the key to every door.”
—George MacDonald
IN WORD A woman in the crowd recognized the depth of Jesus’ teaching and thought He was a fine example. His mother was surely proud, and she was overwhelmed enough with His family’s honor to shout it out to the listening crowd (v. 27). Jewish mothers long for sons such as this.
Jesus, however, took this common concept of “blessedness” and pointed it in the right direction. True blessedness, He says, is not about family honor. It’s a matter of obeying the Word of God. He has just finished a discourse on the various entities that can possess a human heart, and the woman’s shout, rather than being a distraction, was an opportunity to affirm His point. The human heart demonstrates its owner by its obedience. And the heart whose owner is God is blessed.
Obedience is an elusive issue for us. We are obedient to the Word up to a point, which, in effect, means we are not obedient at all. Obedience “up to a point” is ultimately disobedience; it demonstrates that we hold some masters to be higher than the Lord. We can create the illusion of obedience by doing everything right until doing right conflicts with our convenience. But when convenience supersedes obedience, we have found our true idols. We discover what rules us.
IN DEED We must be careful of our own capacity for deceiving ourselves. We like to think we are obedient to God. But once in a while, He puts His finger on something that conflicts with our discipleship. Perhaps we commit to give to the kingdom of God, but a more urgent financial obligation arises. Perhaps we’re fasting, but an important dinner invitation comes our way. The possibilities are limitless, but the dilemma is always the same: We must choose between the inconvenience of obedience and the expedience of moral laxity. We must decide who our real master is. Jesus tells us we will be blessed—utterly happy and favored—if we adhere to the Word of God in such times. Then we, like Jesus, will be children who honor Him.
