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Tag Archives: Obedience

Open-Concept Living . .

12 Tuesday Jan 2016

Posted by Cheryl Ries in Attitude, Choices, Christianity, Faith, Freedom, God, Lessons, Maturity, Wisdom

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Control, Jesus Christ, Obedience

It’s nearly impossible to compartmentalize your life for long. Especially when it comes to being a believer, a follower of Jesus Christ. I tried for many years to keep God, my faith and my growing relationship with the Lord into the neat compartment of the occasional Sunday morning; some years of my life, I even kept it strictly to emergencies and holidays! I will tell you that at the time, it seemed to be working; but always there came a reason and a desire to move closer, to draw further in. And eventually, the closeness and proximity to Him made it impossible to stay away for long at all! And in increasing my time with Him, in drawing closer in relationship to Him and in giving more of my life to Him, I was unable to separate areas of distinction in my life from Him! My life with the Lord became open-concept living . . no “rooms” I struggle in vain to keep separated by closed or locked doors!

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You cannot ask the Lord to be Lord of your spirit and soul, but then deny Him access to your other parts! And you cannot hold the door closed on Him when it comes to relationships and social activities, all while asking Him to watch over you and the rest of your life, the rest of the time. The surest manner of being born again, of having a relationship with the Lord, is to go all out! You must relegate yourself subordinate to Him in every way possible to give Him the rightful place as Lord and Savior over all your life and being. And that is sacrifice, that is complete and total surrender; and that is certainly not easy sometimes! That is the committed will to let go of any control over any part of your life, trusting completely in the Lord. Let go, let God! In every area. In all ways. There are no compartments in which He doesn’t have clear vision, awareness or control anyway; so why persist in holding back from giving Him the wheel? If we’re keeping some areas in our lives over which we are determined to sin, to go astray and to be out of His will, then we are keeping ourselves purposefully apart from Him. And although He doesn’t require our works to love us, to have died for us or to offer us salvation, we can show our love for Him through our obedience and surrender. Hopefully, as we draw nearer to Him, our love and obedience is something freely-given to Him because it seems a joyous choice to make anew each day!

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What we do after we’ve been born anew in Him is how we honor Him, give Him glory and love Him faithfully in return; it’s also how we fulfill His purposes for us. It is not possible to neatly compartmentalize our lives while so deeply committed and devoted to serving Him! Seek to grow nearer to Him, though it not be easy, it is the most rewarding aspect of faith to know the Lord better! I can only attest that is exactly what has happened to me; through my drawing in towards the Lord, I have felt Him drawing me in. My trust in Him has grown and my peace has increased; I know absolutely that I am loved!

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One Foot In the World . .

14 Monday Dec 2015

Posted by Cheryl Ries in Attitude, Choices, Christianity, Commitment, Discipline, God, Growing, Maturity, Uncategorized

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Acceptance, Faithfulness, Obedience

Ever try to walk on two different surfaces or levels for any length of time? It is hard. So it is when we walk with our lives compartmentalized . . we’re faithful here, we obey there; but we still love our earthly lives so much, we cannot let go of this or that! As believers, that is referred to as having one foot in the world and one foot in the Kingdom. It doesn’t work in the long run, as we lose our footing eventually; we fall so repeatedly from the more difficult trek, to take more frequently the easier, most comfortable path.

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Many will choose to remain this way, straddling the realm of the finite things of this world, to preserve the fun and pleasure for now; all while endeavoring to keep just enough tied to God for their salvation’s sake. It’s truly a shame, as by giving up the growing process which comes from having a life fully vested in the Father’s will, they usually miss the best part of forming a solid, fulfilling relationship with Him! For it is in our loving and willful obedience and surrender to Him, that we learn truly who we are and what we were meant to be, for His sake! If we choose to conform to what is of this world more that we choose to be apart from this world (as His Word directs us), through our stubborn disobedience and a willful determination to remain as we are for the sake of enjoying this world and feeding our own egos, we then cease to convey to Him our trust, faith, hope and especially, our real abiding love for Him.

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We might still find our salvation through the Lord, we might still make our way to eternity; but what if we are just disobedient and willful enough to sever our ties to Him through our conformance to this world? We might just convince Him with our determined effort to abide in this world, unknowingly to us, that we aren’t really committed to serving Him while here or spending eternity with Him when this life is done. Truly that is something to consider when we let our egos direct our steps, rather than giving the Lord full reign and letting Him guide us completely for our entire lives! We cannot compartmentalize our lives when it comes to our relationship with the Lord; we are apart, separate and not of this world, because we are His! Where do you want to belong? As we grow closer to the Lord in our relationship with Him, obedience and non-conformity becomes easier for us; we actually understand and accept, through the Spirit within us, our own separateness from this world! Signature02

Today, Give God the Reins . .

12 Monday Oct 2015

Posted by Cheryl Ries in Choices, Christianity, Commitment, Discipline, Faith, God, Life, Maturity

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God, Obedience, Spiritual Maturity

Each day, what if I were to desire for my day more of what the Lord wants from me than even what I want for myself? What if I sublimate my own ego so conclusively that I am able to actually strive to please God more than I would even seek my own sources of pleasure? It’s a goal to live in such a disciplined and obedient way; but it is what we are called to do and be as followers! We are to live not self-centered lives, but God-centered lives. Can I do it? Am I so willing to give up and give away my own self-centered ways for the sake of accepting His will, His goals and His purpose for me? Are we that committed to the Lord that our own egos, our own flesh and our own will can take a back seat?  2001

 

That is what He asks of us, not so that we may appreciate how it feels to break apart or to have needs unmet; but rather so that we may live in unity with His perfect plan for our lives! We only see a very small part of the picture through our own lenses, the rest is often not even known. Often what we want and believe we need isn’t good for us or necessary for His plan for us. How do we learn to let go and let God have the reins? We set our hearts and minds on Him, trusting in Him, having faith in Him! We examine the evidence of our own lives as believers and examine the testimonies of those before us as well as those around us now; as well as studying His living, breathing, teaching Word for meaning and instruction as to how we’re to live our lives. We know what we know about God because we have chosen to believe Him and believe in Him! We grow in faith and also in our belief as witnesses!  

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Let us not then hold back on transforming thoroughly our lives through Christ because we want something silly or ultimately meaningless for ourselves today or tomorrow! Let go and give God the reins for everything! If we wake up anew each day and pledge our lives, our behavior, our will and all that we are towards the primary goal of pleasing and serving God, how much better for it will we be? Today’s most important goal as a believer is the same as yesterday’s and tomorrow’s, a relationship with the Father which not only sustains us now; but gives us a future and eternity with Him! He doesn’t need us to do a thing for Him to faithfully love us; but our obedience to Him demonstrates our faithfulness and love for Him!   Signature02

40 Days . . The Meaning of Lent

19 Thursday Feb 2015

Posted by Cheryl Ries in Attitude, Choices, Christianity, Faithfulness, Maturity, Strength

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Lent, Obedience, Temptation

Here we are in the season of Lent, which for Christians is the forty days prior to Easter meant to remind us of Christ’s forty days of wandering alone in the desert. During that time, Jesus was obedient to God through fasting, sacrifice and prayer; he fought off all manner of temptation from Satan and he endured with obedience battles of will knowing the remainder of his days were not going to be simple. Why is this period of Lent significant to us, the faithful? We endeavor to sacrifice, to fast, to pray and to endure with willful obedience for an equal time some manner of daily temptation. We know Jesus suffered greatly for us; culminating at the Cross, where he died for our sake – though he was truly innocent, sinless and unworthy such a death. Yet he endured it all with obedience, even the horrible death by crucifixion, bearing all the weight and burden of our sin and every human sin ever committed.

5021963816_bee340a0e1_z When I imagine such a love as to want to take from me the weight and burden of my sin and a God who loves me so much as to want to save me from such condemnation and hell for an eternity, even though I am unable to be perfect in my humanity like Christ, I am overwhelmed! It evokes my ability through discipline and obedience to make such minor sacrifices as giving up meat, wine, coffee, sweets, etc., or fasting for a time each season of Lent as just a small measure of my recognition and gratitude for Christ’s sacrifices for me! It reminds me of God’s many faithful promises to us, His faithfulness in keeping them all; and also how all the prophesies and instruction in God’s Word remind us of our secure place within His embrace of grace regardless the world! 

imagesTT5PI3PH Jesus first told the Apostles while gathering them as such that they should throw down their fishing nets to become instead fishers of men. Then upon rising from the tomb in which he was sealed after his death upon the Cross, Jesus prophesied to them by instruction that they would go out and spread the good news of the Gospel to all the corners of the world, being persecuted and martyred for it; and though they each were persecuted and martyred for it – even put to death or exiled, think of how true this prophesy is today?! That great news of the Gospel is known all around the world still; it lives and breathes hope and light into the lives of billions and billions of people far and wide! Sadly, many are still being persecuted and martyred for their belief in Christ. But think about it . . a handful of men (the Apostles) set out in a time when there were no cell phones, no computers, no cars or jets, no ease or speed of transportation or communication, and plenty of hostile unbelievers all around them. They set about to convey to the entire world the glory of Jesus’ life and his purpose as the Messiah, his meaningful birth, the miraculous things which they had witnessed being at his side, the lessons he had taught them, his rather significant death by crucifixion, and the salvation promised at the foot of that Cross because they had witnessed him as risen. They did just as Jesus instructed them to do in His prophetic instruction, having been endowed with that same will and power of the Holy Spirit within them.  And even though persecuted and martyred for conveying such wonderful and glorious news to the world, they managed to keep this message of love not only living, but thriving to this very day! 

imagesWUGIPFRS So when I think of how hard Satan persists each new day by way of those who do his work to silence and destroy the message of the Gospel, how he endeavors to negate the meaning which Christ brings to each of our lives by way of redemption, salvation and love . . or how he attempts to destroy the hope we have in living our lives each day for God’s glory, it doesn’t take me long to quiet my mind in peace again! For in my faithful assurance, I know God will have His triumph through His loving grace, his promises made and kept as well as His faithfulness to us, demonstrated each new day in infinite ways. Jesus Christ will always have the victory over death, things of this fallen, sinful earth and the ways of the enemy. The prophesies foretold centuries and millennia ago throughout God’s Word in the Bible have played out and proven to be true, assuring us as our living, breathing evidence. And they will continue to play out until the end times. God is good, He keeps His promises, though we’re surely not worth it; by His grace and through Jesus Christ we have redemption, salvation and victory over all of that as well!  Signature02

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Cheryl Ries-Author & Model

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