Trust and Obey

Trust and obey. A simple admonition, but very difficult for us humans to follow. In the beginning, God asked Adam and Eve to trust and obey. They didn’t, and sin, death, and destruction followed. Perhaps they thought: “What’s the big deal?” Or, “Surely God isn’t serious.” Or, “This doesn’t make sense.”

Several thousand years later, Abraham was asked to trust and obey by taking his son to the region of Moriah and sacrificing him as a burnt offering to God. Abraham’s response to God was immediate and directly opposite to that of Adam and Eve. Even though this direction from God made no sense in light of God’s promise to make a great nation of Isaac, Abraham immediately obeyed.

Just before Abraham took Isaac’s life, however, God stopped him and provided a ram in the thicket to serve as the sacrifice. Unbeknownst to Abraham, His obedience had drawn a prophetic picture of God’s plan of salvation for the human race through the sacrifice of the perfect Lamb, Jesus, many centuries later, at the very same location.

Jesus died to pay the debt for the disobedience and faithlessness of Adam and Eve, and of all us humans thereafter. Just before He laid down His physical life, Jesus said to Father God, “Not my will but Thine be done.” He trusted and obeyed.

Abraham said yes. Jesus said yes. Do we, who claim to worship the same God as Abraham and to be followers of Jesus, say yes when God speaks? Do we obey God without excuse or delay? Do we trust that He knows best?

Years ago, God prompted a man to surrender his license to practice law as an act of faith in and obedience to Him. He took every action necessary to surrender the license. Giving up his law license meant giving up a significant means of providing for himself. He wept when he put the last documents in the mail necessary to surrender his license. It was precious to him. He treasured it. It represented years of work and achievement.

It made no sense from a purely practical standpoint. Why would God ask this? But he chose to obey. To his amazement, the Lord inexplicably restored his law license to him some years later, despite his obedience to surrender it. God saw his willingness to follow Him even if it meant loss of something very precious and God intervened to restore what the man was willing to surrender.

God sees the heart. He wants our whole heart and He will test it, because He knows ‘there’s no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.’ Will we trust God and obey Him in whatever way He is asking us today?