Obedience

Obedience is described by Merriam-Webster dictionary as "an act or instance of obeying." This shows us that in order to be in obedience we have to do something. We have to choose, by an act of our will, to move/change/act. 


There have been multiple times where God has told me to stop being friends with a person(s) and I've not listened. The desire to be accepted and to have a friend outweighed the warning of the Holy Spirit. Reflecting over the times when God told me to move/change/act and I didn't listened revealed one thing... Disobedience brings consequences.


More often than not, God tells us things to help us or warn us or protect us. Just like a mother tells her child, "Don't play on the road!" Why? Because she knows that a car could zoom along the road and injury or possibly kill the child. God gives us warnings to stop our spiritual life from being injured or killed... and often so we don't have to deal with the pain associated with injury/death.


I have had God tell me many times, in different ways, to stop being friends with certain people and when I've not listened my relationship with God has suffered an often become non-existent. I have been brought to a point where there is nothing left and I feel, in a very real sense, lost. Lost not only in the sense of not feeling God's presence, but also not being able to recognize who I am anymore. 


Recently, I saw a side of a friend that I didn't like... normally I would've ignored it or even apologised for it, but I felt that this was an instance where I had to move/change/act. To say, "our friendship has come to an end," is one of the hardest things that I have ever had to do, and it didn't exactly help my acceptance issues, but nevertheless, I backed off from the person, asked for some space and I've finally plucked up the courage to say, "your expectations of me are unfair." I know that this was a choice that I had to make... God showed me the true colours of my friend and then asked me to decide what I wanted to do about it. The characteristics I saw, I had seen before and the destruction of staying friends far outweighed the value of the friendship.


I guess what I'm trying to say is this... even though obedience is hard and it's something you have to choose to do, the consequences of disobedience is far harder. Obedience an act of obeying!