As I sat in a chapel service at school this week I heard a sermon about obedience.  To summarize - obeying God does not simply mean to not disobey.  But obeying God is active, courageous, planned, and faithful obedience.  Often times we claim to be obedient because we see others around us and proudly claim we are not sinning in the ways many of them are, so we must be obeying.  But, Matthew 22:39 tells us of how Jesus told us to “love our neighbor as yourself.”  How many of us are actively loving are neighbors as ourselves?  Do we seek to meet their needs daily?  Do we always show love and compassion?  Do we even know who our neighbors are?   Before we congratulate ourselves too much for being obedient Christians, let’s us first look to see if we are basing our definition of obedience on our judgment of others or on the words of Christ!

Lord, help your children to be more obedient! Amen

 Stephen