Faith

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Faith in Action Is Obedience

There’s days when it’s a battle being obedient to the Lord. Not just to His commands, but there’s times when I struggle identifying His voice. I try to live my faith out loud and keep it real, but there’s days when I want to put my Christian mask on, you know, my church face, the one with the big smile that only says, I’m blessed, I’m blessed, I’m blessed. But what could be further from the truth. I fall short and my faith falters on any given day. How did the Old Testament saints maintain such a high level of obedience?

When the Lord commanded Abraham to sacrifice Isaac on the mountain, he saddled the donkey, grabbed his son and proceeded up the mountain. He waited all his life for an heir, but that didn’t deter Abraham. He readied the knife to slay him when the Lord called from heaven and halted the sacrifice (Genesis 22:1-18). Isaac was his only son. I have only one boy child, I couldn’t have done it. I would have never made it to the mountain, probably rebuking the thought of it and assigning blame to the enemy. Abraham knew the voice of the Master and had enough faith to carry out His will.

Noah was commanded to build an ark, hundreds of miles from water. And gathered two of each animal before the flood arrived (Genesis 6). Would you build a ship in your front yard, miles from the ocean? I probably wouldn’t, the resources to build it would be larger than the boat itself and the only way I could have got the animals on board would be in a meat lockers. Noah heard the voice of the shepherd; he may have been the laughing stock of his community, but because of his obedience the kingdom carried on.

On another occasion Isaiah was commanded to prophesy to Egypt. Sounds simple, but the Lord commanded him to remove the sackcloth and his sandals. He did this for three years. Isaiah didn’t care what people thought about him, without hesitation, off came the cloths and he went about the Lords business (Isaiah 20:2-4). If the Lord commanded one of us to preach in the buff, the church would rebuke and disown us. I would have a hard time doing it. Most of us are afraid to look in the mirror when we’re naked, much less taking it to the streets.

These men were no different physically than any other men of there times. What separated them from the rest was faith; they knew the Lord wouldn’t send them in the wrong direction. They were team players, no matter the outcome, and were honored to be chosen for the task. We all struggle and the daily rigors wears us down. But the Lord will never steer us wrong and if He calls us for a chore bigger than us, He will provide the means to accomplish it. Faith in action is obedience.

2007 Randall Wadley

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