Today I Choose Obedience

Today I choose obedience. To follow where God leads!
Being obedient is hard, from a very young age we struggle with obeying. And if you are a parent, teaching your children to obey can be one of the hardest and most frustrating things to do. We have probably all heard or said words close to... "if you had only listened to me the first time". We are called not only to listen and obey authority figures in our lives, we are called to obey God!
Think about Jonah. God asked him to go to Nineveh and instead of listening, he went another direction. Now, God probably won't send a giant fish to swallow us up when we don't listen to him, but are we missing other ways that God is trying to get our attention when we're not obeying?
2 John verse 6 says, "And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love." And 1 John 5:3 says, "This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome". Do we view our obedience as love towards God? Do we think about how our obedience shows our love for him? I know that I am so proud of Parker when he obeys me. It feels like I have done something right as a parent and it gives me pride to know that he desires to follow the rules. I can't help but think about how proud God must be of us when we obey him.
1 Peter 1:13-16 give us a great challenge for obedience. "Therefore, prepare your minds for action, be self-controlled, set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed. As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as he who called you is holy; so be holy in all you do; for it is written: 'Be holy, because I am holy.'" We should always be ready to be obedient, to listen to what God is calling us to do and to act.
Tomorrow, my word to focus on is listen and I am going to be praying and asking God to reveal to me the areas in which I am not being obedient. I want to listen to the things he is asking me to do and to obey!
For me, starting this 35 day challenge was a big step of obedience. I felt like God kept telling me to move forward on the ideas that he had given me and I am so blessed for obeying! I have learned so much and have been encourage by so many that have been following this journey. It's truly amazing what can happen when we obey! To God be the glory, because without him I am nothing.
So, today I choose to be obedient to God's plan. Because it is so much greater than I could ever imagine.