Several years ago, the presence of God filled my room. As I sat, receiving what can only be described as the inbreathed power of God’s glory, God began to speak. I wrote down all He said. What I saw was a beautiful poem about His love for humanity. His instructions were simple: send the poem to specific people. I was hesitant. These were people I didn’t really know and they were prominent community leaders. Surely, God was joking, right?
Sometimes, in order to receive the blessings God has for us, we have to learn to do the things He asks of us. This means that even when we don’t understand why God is asking us to do something; we trust Him enough to do it. It means that while we may not feel like doing the thing or even think it is important, our reverence of God must be greater than what we think or feel.
When we look at Luke 5, we see Peter and some of the disciples. They had been fishing all night without any success. They were tired, exhausted and probably ready to call it a night until Jesus showed up. He instructed them to launch their nets out again. Peter did not want too but he did so simply because the Lord asked him too. The result? They caught so much fish, it almost sank their boat.
Through obedience, Peter and the disciples were able to receive God’s blessing for their lives. While I may not have thought sending the poem to prominent leaders was a good idea, sending it positioned me to receive God’s best for my life. This is the train of thought that God expects us to have. Despite how we feel or think about a particular thing, we must be willing to hear and obey God when He speaks to us. Much like the Yoruba faith which teaches that we can align our inner thoughts with those of the Creator, obedience allows us to yield to God’s voice, thereby, allowing us to align with His will and desires for our lives.
Throughout Old or New Testament scripture, we see a common theme emerge: obedience is better than sacrifice. Whether we’re focusing on King Saul and his refusal to wait for the prophet to officiate a sacrifice or Jesus’ plea in the garden of Gethsemane, we see how the importance of obedience and yielding to God’s voice.
