Day Fourteen
“Buying Your Way to Heaven?”
Has the Lord as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold to obey is than sacrifice and to heed than the fat of rams.
I Samuel 15:2
Recently I was eating at a café when a man I don’t really know well offered to buy my lunch. Someone saw this act and commented that the man was simply trying to buy his way into heaven. Now, I cannot judge the motives of such actions but I am called to look into my own motives. Do we think we can give God a little money and bypass other areas of disobedience? Let us not foolishly think that God is ever impressed by our giving, regardless of the size or amount, as if we are doing Him a favor while at the same time disobeying Him in other ways. God cannot be bought off. He does not need your money or mine; he already owns everything.
God wants uncompromised obedience. We are now at the two-week mark of this challenge. It is getting tougher. The fasting is harder. The praying is more difficult. And now even the obedience is harder. God is calling us to things that are uncomfortable and He is challenging our faith in new ways.
Why do we want to compromise and throw money at God rather than surrendering our lives? Due to the fact that Jesus purchased our redemption on the cross, for every blood-bought saved child of His, He owns us! The truth is we often act like He is renting us and has to ask us permission to make needed changes in our lives. God owns us! “Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body. (I Corinthians 6:19-20.) “ For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died; and He died for all that they who live should no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf.” (II Corinthians 5:14-15)
God has the right to ask us to do anything, at any time, and anywhere He chooses, without asking our permission. This is a hard truth and many have rejected it over the years. What about you? As you continue in this forty day-challenge are you willing to obey God in what He is asking? You do not need to go into details about the possibilities of what that obedience might look like. God is sufficient to lead and reveal what He wants from each of us.
I am very passionate about this truth, a passion that began in late July of 2000. At that time I traveled and preached at camps, revivals, and retreats full-time. It had been a busy summer and I was winding down to the last few events. I had three events back to back to back which left me no time to go home to see my family. I missed one of my boys’ birthday and it pained me deeply. I lay in my little hotel room at the camp where I was preaching and cried my eyes out. God spoke a very firm word to me that day - He called me to follow Him no matter what. It was in that little hotel room that I really sought to surrender my life. Two verses gripped my soul that I will be sharing over the next two days.
For now, suffice it to say that God wants our full obedience. There is no way I can look through these pages into the recesses of your heart to know if you are holding back. If you are experiencing conviction it is from the Holy Spirit; he is calling you to the next level in your service to Him. It might feel very uncomfortable to surrender your life in obedience, but as Paul Harvey used to say, I want to tell you “the rest of the story.”
A couple of years ago I was back at that same camp where I surrendered my life and family to the Lord. I went back by the same hotel and stood on the same piece of dirt where I had surrendered my life to the Lord nine years ago. I was no longer traveling full-time; in fact, those same boys I had missed so badly during my traveling days were now attending the children’s camp that I was also enjoying as a sponsor and pastor from FBC Paradise. I realized right then that when I surrendered my life to the Lord in obedience, He gave me the desires of my heart. I am now a pastor in a great church and enjoying watching my boys grow and mature right before my very eyes.
Stop holding back. It is time to remove the “No Trespassing” sign on whatever area of your life that you don’t want the Lord to enter. It is time to surrender and to follow Him in complete obedience. I like the words to the old hymn “I Have Decided.” One line in particular really stirs my heart: “Though none go with me, I still will follow, though none go with me, I still will follow. No turning back, no turning back.”[1]
Steps to Trust and Obey:
Is there any area of your life where you have not given God control?
Is there something that He has called you to do that you have rejected, choosing to live in rebellion? If so, how has this choice affected your relationship with Him and those around you?
What is keeping you from obedience today? Would ask the Lord to remove those things and help you take the steps to follow Him?
Is He calling you to do something today? If so what is it and are you willing to be obedient?
[1] The Baptist Hymnal, “I Have Decided to Follow Jesus”, St. 1,2, Garro Christians, Nashville, Convention Press, 1991, p. 305
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