Obedience

(I'm back to blogging again after a long lay off! Will you help me increase the followers?)

"The Lord appeared to him and said, 'Do not go down to Egypt; stay in the land of which I shall tell you. Sojourn in this land and I will be with you and bless you, for to you and to your descendants I will give all these lands and I will establish the oath which I swore to your father Abraham." (Genesis 26:2-3, NASB)

Obedience...a concept that has to be taught, caught, and returned in order to be effective. Kids aren't born being obedient. I have a 4 month old, and when she whines, no matter how often I tell her to stop...she won't until she's ready. Why? She can't understand me, therefore, she can't obey me. My 2 year old has to be taught how to obey when we say to clean up his toys, and so forth. Obedience isn't often inherited, it's taught by authority, caught by us, and returned by applying.

The Lord was speaking to Isaac, the son of Abraham. He was basically saying this... "Hey, Isaac. If you want to be blessed, if you want the promise, and the relationship with me here's all you have to do...LISTEN TO ME!" Really, it's that easy for us as well. If we want God's blessing...Listen and obey! If we want relationship... listen and obey! You want God to come through on His promises... listen and obey! Relationship requires these 2 things - if we deny our relationship these 2 things we forfeit the profit of the relationship.

Isaac got the point. Check this out: "No Isaac sowed in that land and reaped in the same year a hundredfold. And the Lord blessed him." (Genesis 26:12, NASB) 

Why did the Lord bless him that well? He listened and obeyed. Does that mean it'll always make sense or be easy? Nope. In fact you may be asked to do something difficult just to see how your faith is. But there's one thing I can assure you, if you listen and then obey - God will then come through, and manifest in your relationship.

Listen. Obey. Live.