Episode 280: I’m Talkin. . .Obey

I’m talking episode 280 for August 27th, 2023.

This is Joel from the I’m Talking microcast, where I share my thoughts on the topic that has piqued my interest this past week.

This week, we’re talking obey.

Obey is a pretty simple word and it’s one you hear from a very early age from parents or others who are in charge of you.

And the one thing that happens in our world is it seems like obey is forced upon us and not necessarily a choice.

It’s a set of rules that we have to follow and a set of ideas.

Well, maybe it is just rules that we have to follow and who is in charge and who made up the rules and why is it that I have to obey them?

And when you find yourself in that kind of situation and you don’t trust the people who are making the rules that you must obey, you find yourself in a hurry to get out from under that rule.

You can’t wait to be free.

You can’t wait to set your own boundaries, to set your own rules, to follow your own way.

And that seems to be true for all of us.

However, the problem with that is that it gets us into trouble.

We decide we want to rebel and we decide we want to do our own thing and sometimes we don’t have the wisdom to do that correctly.

And so in the world’s eyes, you are in charge of you.

No one else can tell you what to do.

No one else can tell you what to obey.

You may have to begrudgingly follow the laws of the state or the laws of the nation or the laws of a city, but it always seems to have that kind of attitude, a begrudging attitude.

And therein lies the challenge for those of us who call ourselves Christians.

I don’t think I’m stretching the truth when I say that the world, in the worldview, does not understand how we can put ourselves under the rule of an entity who we can’t see, who doesn’t actually talk to us and obey them.

And that is often the challenge we are faced with when sharing the good news about Jesus Christ.

It’s like, there’s too many rules to obey.

There’s, we have to do this and you have to obey this.

And there’s too many restrictions.

And the reality is that to become a Christian, you have to have some humility.

You have to say, I’m a sinner in need of a Savior.

That is a requirement.

You also have to recognize that you don’t know what’s best.

You need guidance.

There is a problem with following a human heart that leads to destruction.

And you see that all throughout the world.

You can point it out to whoever you’re talking to, and they may choose to not see that.

But if they look even at the surface, they can see that people following their own hearts rarely, if ever, leads to anything good.

And so what do we obey?

Who’s in charge?

How do we know?

Parents are put in charge of their children.

And hopefully as Christian parents, we use God as an example to be the father, to be the parent, to be the mother that we need to be.

We have to recognize that in humility, understanding that God knows best, that we put ourselves under His authority to obey His rules, and then we live in ultimate freedom.

It sounds like an oxymoron to be under somebody and to be totally free.

And that is Christ.

That is God in essence.

He is an oxymoron.

A God of justice, who also loves grace.

A God of punishment, a God who must see right be done, and a God who gives free will.

A God who is perfect, who loves the imperfect and us.

A God who wants us to have abundant life.

These are not simple concepts to understand.

The first simple concept we must understand to obey is to recognize we need a Savior.

The second concept we understand is to obey, is to be in humbleness, put ourselves below a perfect and loving God.

And that allows us to live free and to live for God’s glory.

Until next week, this is Joel from the I’m Talking Microcast.