DEVOTIONAL PAGE
Cheerful obedience is two words that many of us say we have and expect from our children, employees, and others. Do we have cheerful obedience within ourselves? Can we really say that everything we do, we do with a good attitude and expectations of great results?
A friend of mine suggested that I do an article on cheerful obedience and the more I read about this subject and search the scriptures for what is said about this, I have come to the conclusion that all of us can be cheerful obedient children of God have our hearts in tune with Him.
Most of us that are adults talk about our children obeying us and doing so cheerfully. Did we obey our parents with cheerful obedience or did we go through those human growth stages where we listened to the world and thought we knew all there was to know?
I believe that we, as adults and parents, have to show our love for the Lord and to let Him control what we do and say. If we do this then we are going to have a cheerful heart and obey His commands for us. The problem is that we get in the way of what He wants us to do because we try to help Him solve many problems and or situations through worldly desires or needs. The Lord tests our love for Him because He wants all that we have to be if we used for praise toward Him.
When our children see this in us then they will have a better understanding of cheerful obedience toward us. We need to train and nurture them in the way of the Lord and not in the way of the world. This is something that they have to accept and understand that it is a free gift from God and God only. This, sometimes, is hard for our children to understand because they are hammered so hard by the world around them.
In Genesis, chapter 22, we are told how the Lord tested Abraham. Abraham was very obedient to what the Lord asked him to do, but, as a parent of today, would we have been cheerful or obedient about what the Lord asked Abraham to do? How many of us would have laid our son on the alter to be sacrificed as a burnt offering? Abraham did because he loved the Lord with all of his soul and might.
Prayer: Thank you Lord for your love and your patience with me. Lead me in the direction that I can be in cheerful obedience to you. Help me train the children you have blessed me with to be your servants also. Amen.
(Suggested daily Bible readings: Sunday - Genesis 22:9-18; Monday Matthew 6:19-24; Tuesday - Jeremiah 35:118; Wednesday - Mark 3:31-35; Thursday Proverbs 7:1-5; Friday - Luke 2:39-40; Saturday - Psalm 119:65-72.) A129-11