"Little" Obedience

Obedience.  Obedience isn’t a word we like to think about, but it is a necessary word.  In our house, “because I said so” is a frequently repeated phrase.  When we ask for our children to obey us, we want them to act immediately.  Delayed obedience is disobedience.  And disobedience puts us outside of the circle of God’s will.  Delayed obedience, likewise, places children outside the protection of their parents. When we tell a child not to run in a street or touch a hot stove, we need them to trust us and act immediately – even when it doesn’t make sense to them. To not do so can mean serious harm for the child.

In the same way, God wants immediate obedience from us… even though WE don’t always understand why.  In fact, we often think of obedience in big terms – leading God’s children out of Israel, building an ark when the world has never seen rain before, or being missionaries in a hostile country.  But we need to be obedient even in the small acts that don’t make sense to us.  Things that are so simple that we feel surely God isn’t asking us to do that.

In 2 Kings Chapter 5, Naaman is a well-known and well-respected army commander.  He leads thousands of men, and the king looks upon him favorably.  However, Naaman suffers from a skin disease.  We don’t know exactly what the disease is, but it is clearly a torment to him.  Naaman’s servant girl tells him of a prophet in Israel who can heal him. With the king’s blessing and under great expectations, Naaman undertakes a big journey with gifts of gold, silver, and clothing in tow.  When he finally reaches Elisha’s home, Elisha sends a messenger out to meet Naaman and tells him to wash seven times in the Jordan River.  “What?!” Naaman is angry.  He is an important man who has traveled many miles and put his life on hold with the expectation that this great prophet would come out and call upon his God over Naaman.  Instead, he is told by the prophet’s servant go wash in the local body of water that Naaman deems well beneath those of his own homeland.  Blessedly, Naaman’s own servant speaks in wisdom, and says, “My father, would you not have done a more difficult thing? How much more so can you do this?”  Naaman did as Elisha commanded, and he was healed.  It was so easy it didn’t make sense.

In one of my social media groups, a woman found out she and her husband were pregnant with their sixth child.  This was an unwanted surprise, and they made plans to visit an abortion clinic.  On their way to the clinic, they stopped at a gas station.  A stranger went out of her way to walk up to the mother, smile at her, wish her a good day, and say “God bless you!” The reluctant mother felt her attitude shift. At the appointment, during the consultation prior to surgery, she just felt they needed to leave.  Crying, she urged her husband to go, and leave they did.  They scheduled a regular maternity appointment with an OB/GYN and are excitedly looking forward to the arrival of baby number six in August.

What do we know about the woman at the gas station?  -  The one who smiled and went out of her way to bless that mother  -  For all we know she had a terrible morning where her kids griped at her about putting on their shoes for school, maybe someone cut her off in traffic, maybe her boss was being unreasonable, maybe she just didn’t feel like smiling at anyone.  What we do know is that she did.  When God told her to walk up to a total stranger and bless that stranger with a kind smile and words, she had no idea the role she was playing.  She just did it because God said so.

These acts of “little” obedience show our big faith and strengthen our relationship with God.  We don’t always need to know how our part in God’s will work out.  We just need to follow and obey.  So the next time, you feel the Holy Spirit telling you to help someone reach something on a high shelf at a grocery store or smile at a homeless person or offer your snack or open your home for a playdate or invite someone for coffee…do it.