Blessings Through Obedience

I John 5:1-3

1 Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: and every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him.

2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments.

3 For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.

If we love God, we keep His commandments. The flip-side of that coin is that if we are disobedient to God, we are not returning the love He has shown us. This does not mean that we have lost our salvation, but that we have gotten out of fellowship with God. Disobedience to God is a sign of a lack of faith, because if we have true faith in Him we will know that what He tells us to do is what is best for us. As His children, there are consequences when we are disobedient to Him. God will not continue to bless us while we are out of fellowship with Him because He is holy and cannot reward sin.

We talk a lot about trusting, believing, and having faith in God, but our actions don't always back up our words. Faith requires no effort on our part. You either believe something or you don’t. When you start to sit down on a chair, you either trust it to hold you up or you don’t. If you do, you just sit down without worrying about it. If you don’t, you will either not sit down, or just put a little of your weight on it to test it and support the rest of your weight yourself and can’t really get comfortable. You will not be able to rest in that chair. It’s the same way with our relationship with God. You either have faith in Him or you don’t. If you do, you will trust in him without worrying about anything. If you don’t, you will either stay away from Him completely, or rely on your own efforts and hope He can take care of whatever you might miss. That is no way to live.

God has a plan for each of us. He has given us everything we need to know to serve Him in the Bible. He gave us detailed instructions on how we are to relate to Him, as well as our spouses, parents, children, neighbors, employers, employees, government, and even strangers. That covers everyone we will ever meet, but it is up to us to read and study His word to learn what we must do to be in His will. It is foolish to expect God to bless us while we are outside of His will. We cannot live by our own desires and expect Him to answer our prayers. If we live outside of the will of God, how are we supposed to win our lost friends and relatives to the Lord and keep them from the fiery pits of Hell? We owe God our obedience because He saved us, and we owe it to those around us to let them see a difference in us. They need to see the joy that a life of obedience to God will bring. They need to know that God is real and blesses those who trust Him. They need to hear about what He has done for us, and what He is offering freely to them