Why do we do what we do?
2 John 6 “And this is love; that we walk in obedience to his commands.”
1 John 5:3 “This is love for God, to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome for everyone born of God overcomes the world.
Jim and I have travelled down to Christchurch area for a time, why? Because the Lord was directing our feet in this direction. End of story. But why? What has He got for us here? What are we ‘doing’ here? Why spend the money to come down here when we don’t see the finances coming in that will be needed to cover the trip? All sorts of questions arise as we step out in faith but end up not being able to answer all the questions that arise from various directions, various people in their hearts and our own, and yet we come and we come simply in obedience not knowing the outcome but knowing who our Lord is and that He has good plans for us.
Recently the Lord gave me a dream and it led me to the story of Jonah and his refusal to go where the Lord told him to go and the consequences that happened because of disobedience and then finally repentance came and he went where God had originally called him to go. He didn’t go initially because of fear I believe and for many of us we don’t step out into what the Lord calls us to do because of some type of fear, but then because of that fear it cripples us in some form until we come to a place of repentance and trust in the Lord and finally do what He calls us to do. When we do, like Jonah, I believe we will see things we never dreamed of or believed for.
A few years back we believed we were to go to China and it was the ‘last’ money that Jim and I had as such and so it was a huge step and once again we didn’t know why we were to go but we went out of obedience and eventually we understood why we were to go and it grew us immensely in our faith in the Lord to the point that when the Lord called us to go to Africa for three months once again with no money coming in or knowing the country or what we were to do there, but because of seeing the provision in the previous trips, we had the faith rise up in us to step out again and we saw absolutely amazing things happen on that trip that we never dreamed of. God is faithful and is able to perform all that he says he will do, if we will only but ‘obey’ not knowing the outcome.
There was an old song that was sung “Trust and obey for there is no other way to be happy in Jesus” and it is so true. We so often don’t know the outcome of faith, but faith requires an action on our part in order to see the promises come true. We have promises over this trip to Christchurch, and at this point we can’t see them but we are here by faith, not in what we can do, but knowing that our Lord is faithful and will do what He said He will do. I write this not only to encourage others but ourselves in the Lord as we need to be reminded of what the Lord has done in the past to help us keep going in Him, to keep believing in Him when we may not see it yet.
May the Lord richly bless each one of you as you step out in obedience and love for Jesus into what he calls you each one to do.