Get Real With God

I was studying in Spain the summer before my junior year in college when my grandmother died.  After returning to the States, I made it a point to go to her graveside.  I was terribly sad to lose her; she had lived 90 years well.  She had a deep, abiding reverent faith in God.  She was very proper and formal.  She and my grandfather had served in ministry together for nearly 70 years.  I can remember her telling me as a child that I needed to dress up for church to show my respect for God in his house.  So, when I decided to see her grave, out of respect for her viewpoint, I put on a dress.  I thought she would approve.  I drove over to the cemetery and parked the car.  Her grave site was a long walk across the graveyard.  I made my way through the fence and past dozens of graves to her gravestone when I realized I had a huge wad of bubble gum in my mouth.  In my angst of visiting, I was smacking it loudly to myself.  Mortified that perhaps she could hear me, I turned and ran out of the cemetery and looked for the nearest trash can to throw it out.  As I returned, I realized how foolish I was.  First of all, Grandmother was not watching me.  What I wore to visit her grave was of no consequence.  She was in a much better place where style and etiquette simply don’t matter.  Second, she couldn’t hear me popping my gum, either.  I didn’t need to waste it throwing it out before the flavor was gone.  Finally, while my Grandmother was right about nearly everything, I don’t agree that God cares for reverent piety and an outward show of respect through clothing.  I do think, though, that  Grandmother would agree that He looks upon the heart.  Where we differ is that she would challenge that your outward piety demonstrated an inward reverence.  But I disagree.

And I’m in good company.  Job is having quite a dialogue with his buddies.  Repeatedly, they call him on the carpet for addressing God so irreverently and speaking to God as if he were mortal.  Eliphaz scolds him,

“Would a wise person answer with empty notions or fill their belly with the hot east wind? Would they argue with useless words, with speeches that have no value? But you even undermine piety and hinder devotion to God,” (Job 15:2-4).

Religion dictates that certain rules and forms be followed.  But Job is not interested in religion.  He knows religion is useless to him.  What he is desperate for is answers from God himself.  The only way to get answers is to ask questions.  When you’re whole life has turned inside out, you are going to have some emotional questions to ask God.  What further torments Job is that he can’t hear God.  Eliphaz adds insult to injury when he say, “Are God’s promises not enough for you, spoken so gently and tenderly?” (Job 15:11).  At this point in Job’s story, God hasn’t entered the conversation yet so I have to assume Eliphaz thinks his own words are directly from God.  Hardly gentle or tender.  Job rebukes him as such in chapter 16,

“I’ve had all I can take of your talk. What a bunch of miserable comforters! Is there no end to your windbag speeches? What’s your problem that you go on and on like this? If you were in my shoes, I could talk just like you. I could put together a terrific harangue and really let you have it. But I’d never do that. I’d console and comfort, make things better, not worse!    (Job 16:1-5)

I love Job’s engagement here.  He differentiates himself and maintains his position.  Job speaks clearly and directly to God venting his frustration and bewilderment over his suffering.  He is serious about understanding God.  He wants truth and he wants answers.  His heart is blameless.  Nowhere does he curse God or trivialize God.  If fact, he does just the opposite.  He addresses God head on.  I see Job’s intensity and volatility representing a deep passion for true relationship with his Creator.  Nowhere do I see impropriety or an inappropriate familiarity.  He is simply getting it all out to get to the bottom of his despair.  He cannot get to the bottom of it by piping out platitudes and religious cliches.  He knows the pain is not going away until God himself removes it.  He knows his situation is not going to change unless God himself changes it.  So he takes everything he’s got and goes all out to question and understand God.

We’re only halfway through Job’s story but I’ve already peeked at the end.  And Job ends well.  God is okay with Job venting his frustration because Job’s heart is pure.  Job isn’t looking to trash God or belittle him, he’s looking for a way out of a pretty extraordinary situation.  And God can handle his anger.  He can handle yours, too.  We get into trouble when we minimize our troubles and snack away on pious, pithy Christian expressions.  Put all that away and simply pour out your heart to God.  He can handle your anger and he can handle your questions.  Nothing you’ve got is anything He hasn’t seen before.  If you can’t hear him just yet, then strengthen yourself by waiting.  Trust that at his very core, God is good.  Good things are coming.  They always do.  I’ve peeked at the end.

How Important is Obedience?

“By the word of the LORD one of the sons of the prophets said to his companion, ‘Strike me with your weapon,’ but the man refused. So the prophet said, ‘Because you have not obeyed the LORD, as soon as you leave me a lion will kill you.’ And after the man went away, a lion found him and killed him. (1 Kings 20 20;35-36).

Obedience to God is incredibly important! For the man in 1 Kings, disobedience to the express word of the Lord through the prophet cost him his life.  His disobedience led to him being devoured by a lion! It may seem harsh to us, but the principle that is being demonstrated here is that the flesh and the Spirit are at war with one another.  The flesh — that is, the natural man — cannot and will not yield to the Holy Spirit.  The flesh will always seek an easier way than the way of the Lord. The flesh will always try to figure out what makes sense, rather than obey what the Spirit commands. In the book of Romans we read: “ For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God,” (Romans 8:5-8).

Similarly we see the flesh at work in King Ahab. When Ahab let his enemy King Ben-Hadad go (following all the trouble the Arameans had inflicted upon the Israelites), God pronounced judgment on Ahab. The prophet declared, “This is what the LORD says: ‘You have set free a man I had determined should die. Therefore it is your life for his life, your people for his people,” (1King 20:42). Ahab was a wicked king who continually disobeyed the Lord. God helped Ahab destroy the Aramean army to prove to Ahab and to the enemies of Israel that He alone was God. When Ahab failed to destroy the king, his greatest enemy, God said “Enough!” to Ahab’s disobedience.

So how important is obedience? It is of the utmost importance!  It is paramount to living life in the Spirit. God takes great delight in the person who will trust Him and walk in obedience to what He says.  1Samuel 15:22 reads: And Samuel said,“Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams.”  Obedience to what God says is pleasing to Him. Listening to his Voice and following is crucial to God’s plan and purposes being carried out through our lives.

Now don’t confuse obedience to the Voice of God with obeying the Law. Obedience to the Voice has to do with intimate, Spirit-led relationship.  Trying to obey the Law is a means of seeking to be in right standing before God through self-effort.  You can’t do it and no one will be declared righteous before God based upon their works. We are saved by grace through faith. But having believed, the Lord begins to write his Law upon our hearts.  He begins to change our perspective so that we desire to do that which he word commands.  And he provides the power and ability to carry it out.

Christian obedience is not about going back under the Law as a means of obtaining righteousness.  Christian obedience is about trusting and yielding to the Holy Spirit who leads, guides and transforms.  Christian obedience is about allowing Christ to live his life through us so that he can accomplish his purposes in our lives and in the lives of others.  Learning to yield to the Spirit is a mark of Christian maturity.  BTW — when you fall short and disobey, simply repent and return to the Lord and allow the blood of Jesus Christ to wash you and cleanse you anew.   May I encourage you to make it your ongoing prayer, “Holy Spirit, teach me to hear your Voice and put within me the desire to walk according to it.  Give me the will and the ability to obey what you command, that Jesus might be glorified. Amen.”