Obedience To God Is Following Jesus

God speaks and His people do well to listen and do what He says.  In the Old Testament it was about obeying Him.  In the New Testament it is about following Him.  The end result is the same but for me FOLLOWING makes it more meaningful and personal.

Jesus fulfilled the Law and the Prophets.  He IS the Law and the Prophets.  He manifests a life of obedience to God in all that He says and in all that He does.  He them invites those who follow Him to do the same.  In that, obedience is not a burdensome duty; it is a delightful devotion.  When I read Psalm 19 and 119 I suspect that was what the Law was always meant to be.  It is a delight to do what God says because it is nourishing and enriching for the soul.  Being yoked with Jesus isn’t bondage; it is perfect freedom because He knows the Way we are going; He is the Way.  Following Jesus provides the Way to Truth and Life.  What greater delight can there be?

It’s always interesting to reflect back on my life.  It seems like I was always fighting to have my way; fighting people, systems in the world, and fighting God in my life.  I liked my independence and rebellion because I believed they made me free.  I was wrong; it did not make me free because I was continually having to fight to keep things going the way I thought they should be going.  These were good ways not necessarily bad ways…But they were MY ways.

At some point in time I just got tired.  I felt like I was hanging over a cliff, hanging on to the edge of a rock so as not to drop.  My fingers were bloody and I was exhausted, and finally I bit the bullet and just released my grip, closed my eyes, and dropped.  When I opened my eyes I found I was really only a few inches from a wide platform and I sat down and wept.  All that energy, all that pain, trauma, and drama, all that time clinging to My way on a cliff when on the other side was beautiful, empty space.

There was no question in my mind that God was that platform and that He was that beautiful wide open space.  But to be in that free space I needed to let go of my way of being and begin following His Way of Being.  Even in the worst of circumstances I have never regretted that decision.

I lived through an often “hard knock life” with the Bobby McGee attitude that “Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose, nothing ain’t worth nothing but it’s free”.  There is some truth to that.  It is necessary to lose everything, including my Self reliant, independent, and I’ll do it my way attitude.  But God puts something beyond that loss; He puts a life.  He puts a life of everything I could ever desire or need beyond the emptiness.  God also provides the Way to that Life in following Jesus who is the manifestation and fulfillment of all the rules, commandments, and precepts that yield that perfect and absolute freedom.