SPONTANEOUS OBEDIENCE
“Then Peter called to him, “Lord, if it’s really you, tell me to come to you, walking on the water.”
One great minister once explained the ultimate lesson of this interaction between Peter and our Master: it is those that believe that obey, and it is those who obey that believe. Peter could not have stood on water unless Christ called Him to, and he could have not had any faith to walk on it if he had not dared to first obey the command of our Lord by setting foot out of the boat. Obeying Christ is the first step, and then comes faith.
As a minister, I often interact with believers who use their moral challenges as an excuse for disobedience and many a time you find the challenge of lack of faith is as a result of disobedience. For example, a sister can complain about another sister’s husband messaging them trying to commit adultery as a decay in moral standards of the man but they interact and entertain the gentleman instead of shunning evil and being by all means absent from the scene of such an interaction.
Secondly, another set may complain of the challenge to tarry in prayer, or serve with devotion and conclude that God simply doesn’t hear them or speak to them and decide to abdicate themselves from the responsibility of obedience that in its turn yields to a formation of faith. Both prove the first statement that it takes faith to obey, just as it takes obedience to have faith. These two cannot be separated because they carry a mutual responsibility and that is what Christ our Lord has come to do for, in and through us.
Child of God, Christ is called a mediator not only cause he stands between us and God making us able to approach Him with boldness, but also between our sinful nature and our new nature born of the spirit which always triumphs as its author did (). Therefore, if you stand in Christ, you can boldly say that truly not death or sin have any power over you. Hallelujah!
Prayer: Father I thank you for this truth. Thank you for the standard you have set in Christ, who endured suffering as a way to defeat it. I have resolved in my heart to always choose obedience where my faith is small, and faith where I need strength to obey for I know the end is victory. You are faithful, and cannot allow me to be tested beyond what I can bear, and for this cause am I confident in the certainty of my triumph. To you who is able to do abundantly and exceedingly more than I can ask, I make room and yield to you that Christ may be glorified. Amen!
CI.
