Obedience Begins with Gratitude

“Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe,” (Hebrews 12:28)

Contrary to what many well-meaning but confused believers think, we ought not to be afraid of an all-knowing, all-powerful God, obeying His Word merely because we know this about God and we know he hates sin. We are to fear and tremble but not out of a place of being afraid of God. Godly fear and obedience should flow from being in awe of His Holiness, being reverent of His goodness, His might, His sovereignty over all the universe. Our obedience to God’s commands and avoidance of sin shouldn’t be because we are scared of the fact that God knows everything about us… it should flow out of our gratitude that despite who we are, sinful and fleshly in nature deserving of God’s wrathful judgement, but for those who believe by faith in the divinity of Jesus and his work on the cross we are ALSO children of God no longer children of wrath headed for hell but covered by Christ’s precious blood. It was Jesus’s sinless life, his suffering, his death on a tree and his victorious resurrection that causes us to obey God and hate sin. Our willing obedience should be an outpouring of gratitude for the mercy and magnificence of The Cross; for the reality that before the foundation of the world we are chosen for His adopted family. All of these truths are the things our hearts need to grasp… they ought to be why we obey Him and turn from sin. We obey because we want to be pleasing and honoring to He who is infinitely worthy of praise.
.
Philippians 2:12 Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling”
Romans 6:17 “But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed”
Romans 7:4 “Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God.”
1 John 5:3 “For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.” [Being afraid is a burden]
1 Peter 1:14 “As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance”

Questions to ask yourself:

  1. How familiar are you with what you have been saved from?
  2. Does having a deeper grasp of God’s wrath give you a deeper sense of what you have been saved from? How does that translate into gratitude for you?

Prayer:

O Lord, My God — hallowed be your name. I thank you for The Cross and I thank you for your redemptive plan for a sinner like me. As I continue this week, help me to be more aware of and in awe of your love and the just wrath I have been saved from. From there, God, will you give me a heart of gratitude and humility? I don’t want my works to be of my own willpower and effort. I want to serve you from a heart of gratitude for who you are: God of the Universe, Holiest of Holy, perfectly just, and the very essence and embodiment of Love. In Jesus’s mighty name, amen.