Friday, June 12

Jeremiah 11:2
"Remind the people of Judah and Jerusalem about the terms of their covenant with me. (NLT)

What were the terms of his covenant?

Verse 4: “If you obey me and do whatever I command you, then you will be my people, and I will be your God.”

No small print. No obscure language hidden away in the back pages of a long and confusing document. They did not need a lawyer to explain it. There it was right in front of them, obvious to see and simple to understand.

What does God require of us? Obedience… that is all. And yet we struggle mightily with it.

Why is it so hard to obey God? We offer excuses: “How do I know what God wants me to do?” Ever heard of a Bible? God’s will is as plain as black and red ink on white paper.

“God asks us to do the impossible!” Really? Let me clear this up: He never asks us to do anything we cannot do. Granted, we need His help to pull it off—and that is exactly why He has put the Holy Spirit in us. Remember this: “I do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13).

“God does not ask the impossible, but He does ask us to do the difficult. If I surrender to His will I’ll end up in Africa or someplace sleeping on the floor of a mud hut and eating grubs.” That is possible. But what will you get in return? Joy. Significance. A sense of purpose. So where is the down side of that?

So what is the real reason obeying God is so hard? Because we don’t want to. It boils down to a very one-sided struggle: our will against God’s. God has revealed His will to us. His will is good for us. Yet something inside of us rises up and says, “Who is the Lord that I should obey?”

If you are truly a born again, Spirit-inhabited believer in Jesus the desire to obey Him is there in you. You may struggle with it, but that is your heart’s desire. And if you do it… if you surrender and obey… you will never regret it.