Obedient Love

God desires for us to discover Him so that we would willingly love and honor Him. Our relationship with God is best compared to one between a father and child. A parent desires their child both love and honors them. Remember when you were a child, and your parents would pick you up from school or maybe a sleepover? Your teacher or friends mom might have told your parents how well behaved you were. Do you remember how proud this made them? How happy were you to make them proud? It's expected for you to act accordingly in their presence, but even while they were away, you exemplified their home training! A reflection of your love, respect and fear of your parents.

I was very disciplined as a child; my dad was very often told how well behaved I was, always asking how. I was very attuned with his voice, methods, and expectations. He's got this practice; he's done as long as I can remember: from across the room, he'd look at me, head tilted down, pull his glasses to the bridge of his nose, and give me that Dad glare from across the room. Never failed, no matter what I was doing - I'd immediately stop and look at him. Not a word from either of us, I'd already gotten the message and corrected my behavior. My dad could say "Sierra." or "I'm going to give you to the count of 3 - " (he never counted "1" or "2"), and I assure you, any misbehavior would instantly come to a halt! No further action required. It was very evident that I respected my dad, mostly from a place of fear, but as I mature, I understand that disciplining me wasn't easy for him. I mean comparatively it was - but he had to inflict pain and establish clear boundaries before it became effortless. It was necessary because he loved me and cared about the behavior and well-being of his child.

Now, I'm not suggesting these as parenting tactics, per-say but I must admit I was a very polite, well-behaved child who didn't require much maintenance. I wasn't perfect, though, and I had sneaky tendencies, which only happened while he wasn't in my presence. When he'd return, he was always honored to hear of my good behavior but in disbelief and disappointment to hear of anything less. My obedience and discipline made my dad the proudest when it was someone else who noticed. This provides perspective to me in a few ways when it comes to honoring our Heavenly Father.

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1. We are a representation of our Father. Our behavior is a natural response to His love. Our obedience ultimately reflects the honor, love & fear we have for God.

2. God is omnipresent - There's no need for Him to hear about how we behaved when we thought no-one was looking because He already knew. So don't just be on your best behavior at church. God is presently searching for our hearts and continues to love us through it all.

3. God's love for us is unconditional! He forgave you for your sin before your birth or death because of what Jesus Christ did on the cross for all of us.

4. When we repent & sincerely ask for forgiveness, He comforts us, takes away our shame, reminds us of His grace, and even brings glory from our self-inflicted circumstance.

5. Obedience is also an expression of Faith! Trusting that God knows what is best for us instead of us calling the shots. The thing about free will is everything is your choice - God doesn't force His will on our lives. You may notice or will notice that when we take control, we end up in the same painful, unfulfilling cycle. It may not always be the exact struggle, sin, or situation, but the result is continually the same. This is not what God intended for our lives; we just tend to get in our way.

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All of creation is unwillingly obedient to God except us humans are the only beings with free will. God literally just wants our genuine, true heart! Our response to God's love for us is to love Him. Love is an emotion which triggers response. Your loving obedience brings joy to our almighty creator. Our parents enjoyed it most when we were well behaved, right?! When they didn't have to worry about us getting into trouble or harming ourselves?! It's known we cannot be perfect - Jesus paid it ALL & God looks at our heart, not a list of rights and wrongs. When our heart is really after God's, your heart and mind transform each day. You'll notice changes on yourself that may not have been intentional. Obedience become natural when we truly fall in love with God. When we love God more than we love something, someone or ourselves it's different than a "forced set of rules", instead it's just like most other relationships where we lovingly want to make the other feel appreciated and loved.