What is obedience and why is it important? The English dictionary defines obey as “to follow the commands or guidance of.” The root of the word obedience is based on the Latin word that means “to hear.” The Hebrew word that is often translated to obey is “Shema,” which also means “to hear.” Basically, a lot of what the Bible calls obedience means “listen and take to heart.” God wants us to “take to heart” his words and commandments as Christians.

Before we dig deep into studying God’s faithfulness in even the darkest of places, we need to establish a very important keystone to getting through it: trust. Do we trust God enough to expose our faults and weaknesses to Him? And do we trust God to love us the way He promises, even though deep down we know the most unlovable things about ourselves? In these moments we need to remember two things: that God made us in His image and the price He paid for us on the cross. God made us, He loves us, and has the best in mind for us.  We just need to trust Him through it all as the foundation for our response to any situation.

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Christianity is full of so many wonderful things: love, peace, security, a God who guides us, etc. However, it’s so easy for us to forget that there is someone out there who does not want us to have these things, and he’s constantly on the lookout to take them away. But if we understand Satan’s reasoning, tactics, and understand our own weaknesses, we will be so much more equipped when those attacks come. 1 Peter 5:8-9 Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. Stand firm against him, and be strong in your faith. Going back to our rope bridge, we will compare Satan to the “prowling lion” of the Amazon: the jaguar.

For more background on the rope bridges discussed in this podcast, see:

Episode 3

Waiting on God’s timing is so hard! Sometimes you’re waiting to fulfill a call that you know God has for you, other times you’re waiting for an answer that you’ve been praying about. But God’s timing is usually not our timing. He uses this waiting time to train, teach, and prepare us for the very thing we are waiting for.

We need to be diligent during these periods in the shepherd’s field. We need to work on growing our relationship with God and looking for those opportunities to get stronger faith. That is the purpose of waiting, and if we do it well, God will make us so much more equipped through it.

We are by no means qualified, experienced, and or adequate enough to do the things that God wants us too. But good news! God doesn’t expect us to be. Actually, he prefers that we’re not because God shows his strength the most through our weaknesses. God takes our broken offerings to him and multiplies them abundantly. He shows his extravagant faithfulness in so many ways, including:

We need to understand these principles of God’s character: He is the same past, present, and future; and His faithfulness is overwhelmingly extravagant and abundant especially when paired with our weaknesses when we hand them to Him to use for His purposes.

2 Corinthians 12:8-10

8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 10 That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

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