Obedience

obedience – 1 a: an act or instance of obeying
b: the quality or state of being obedient

I was one who received a word for the year. Not really desiring one, but willing to receive if He had one for me.

When it came, it felt hard: Obedience.

A quality I strive for in my relationship with Him.

A quality I fail to reflect in so many ways.

I assumed a reprimand loomed on the horizon, when the word came. A call to be more.  More of what I really want to be... try to be.

Surrendered, I looked for the verse — the Word — that would complement my word for the year. I found it via a concordance. 

And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands.

2 John 6

Walking in obedience translates to love for Him.

And… O… how I long to love Him more.

As soon as I read the verse, the thought of a necklace in my closet came to mind. A necklace with a charm I had bought as a Christmas gift two or three years earlier and never gave. A forgotten necklace I had found just days before as I cleaned out my closet, and didn’t know what I was going to do with.

When the necklace came to mind, He spoke to my spirit: Go put it on. I’m giving it to you.

Tears welled… because the word I thought hard… came as an affirmation.

You see, the round charm, a flattened pewter circle, is engraved with Proverbs 17:17…

 …a friend loves at all times…

The message my spirit received from His Spirit: You are my friend.

This word has humbled me this year. Only in Jesus can we obey in such a way that we become God’s friend.

The Nativity is filled with those whose obedience helped make the way for Jesus to become the Word made flesh. But for me, Mary wins the place of honor as poster-child for obedience, one who loves God and is His friend.

Read Luke 1:26-38

Highly favored by God, Mary must have had a history of obedience, and so received an opportunity singular in nature and eternal in its impact:

You will be with child and give birth to a son,

and you are to give him the name Jesus.

This privilege could result in the loss of family, friends, and future. Everything she’d possibly dreamed of hung in the balance with her Yes. And it is her words that I long to embrace for myself, in my relationship with Him. Words of obedience. Words of love. Words of God’s friend.

“I am the Lord’s servant… May it be to me as you have said.”

Luke 1:38 NIV84

Humbled by His Word,
Carol Weaver