Obedience First
There are no substitutes for obeying God. When He gives us a clear command in His Word or when we are praying to Him, we must obey or face serious consequences. Saul found that out when He was rejected by God as king of Israel for failing to obey a command.(I Samuel 15:22) This is tied to the very nature of God, so we must not miss this.
There are many things we can do that please God. He loves for us to pray and to worship Him. He desires to see us offer our sacrifices to Him, as we give our time, talents, and money to Him. I know it blesses His heart for us to tell others about Jesus and how to be saved by His grace. However, we can be doing a lot of good things, but those things do not exempt us from obeying God's commands to us. Also, if we know what God has commanded, we can't change it to fit what we want. We can't partially obey God, and expect Him to be pleased with us. Remember, we are to live by faith. Faith is trusting God, so that we do what He tells us. Faith without works is dead. We relate to God by doing what He commands. All of this is why obedience must be our first priority.
Tomorrow, I intend to read I Samuel 16-18.
There are many things we can do that please God. He loves for us to pray and to worship Him. He desires to see us offer our sacrifices to Him, as we give our time, talents, and money to Him. I know it blesses His heart for us to tell others about Jesus and how to be saved by His grace. However, we can be doing a lot of good things, but those things do not exempt us from obeying God's commands to us. Also, if we know what God has commanded, we can't change it to fit what we want. We can't partially obey God, and expect Him to be pleased with us. Remember, we are to live by faith. Faith is trusting God, so that we do what He tells us. Faith without works is dead. We relate to God by doing what He commands. All of this is why obedience must be our first priority.
Tomorrow, I intend to read I Samuel 16-18.