HOUSE OF ROBERTS BLOG

When was the last time that someone told you to obey? I bet it has been a minute. As dads we expect our children to obey us, and so we are comfortable with the concept of obedience but I think we rarely see it as our job to obey. Actually obedience is one of those things that you can tend to think that you grow out of and yet Paul instructs us men with this last charge. In 1 Timothy 6:13-14, Paul says, “And I charge you before God, who gives life to all, and before Christ Jesus, who gave a good testimony before Pontius Pilate, 14 that you obey this command without wavering. Then no one can find fault with you from now until our Lord Jesus Christ comes again.” 

I mean he really amps it up here…He is using terminology like “I charge you before God…” My man Paul is getting intense! However, I get it! Having lived enough life following Jesus I would say that there Is not a more powerful practice than that of being obedient to what the Spirit of God is telling you to do.  

Maybe to help us better understand obedience, let me call it a muscle. Obedience is a muscle that you must build up in this journey of following Jesus. The moment you made Jesus the Lord of your life, you were then able to hear God’s voice speaking to you. When you read the Bible, it will now come alive to you. Desires will begin to change in you, and you will want to know what God thinks and do what God wants you to do. At some point though, you are going to find out that following Jesus will require you to be obedient and that is again a muscle you have to build. 

And why? Because sometimes God will ask you to do something that you don’t want to do. Maye that is to start tithing to your local church. Maybe that is to pray for a coworker who drives you crazy. Maybe that is to love your wife sacrificially. It is only a matter of time until God will ask you to do something that you don’t want to and what you do at that moment matters. 

There will be other times where you feel like God is asking you to do something that you don’t fully understand. When you read your Bible, you will see that God asked the early Christians in the book of Acts to do some crazy stuff. So many times, these Christians did not fully understand why, what, or who but they obeyed. Scripture is full of men and women who obeyed God even when they did not fully understand, and the same will happen to you. 

Unfortunately, obedience has become a muscle that is underdeveloped in dads. Some of us walk around life like those gym rat dudes who have biceps that are bigger than our heads but whose legs are the size of a teenage girl. In other words, we have a lot of Biblical knowledge or we serve a lot at church, or we are always raising our hands during worship but we struggle with being obedient to what God is telling us to do. Don’t be that guy Dad. Grow the muscle of obedience in your life and watch what that does in you and how God begins to use you.

If you don’t know where to begin, start with your Bible. God is always speaking to you through your word, and there is plenty in there that you can submit to. Also ask the Holy Spirit the question, “What is something that God has asked me to do, but I haven’t done it yet?” If there is anything, He will tell you. And if He does then start there. 

In his final thoughts on this idea, Paul mentions Jesus. Why? Because Jesus is the ultimate example of obedience to God. Jesus obeyed unto death, even when He didn’t want to go to the cross, His response in the garden should be ours as Dad, “God, not my will but yours be done.” Hit the gym today Dad and grow that muscle of obedience.