Doubts
The true man troubled by doubts is so troubled into further health and growth. Let him be alive and hopeful, above all obedient.
— George MacDonald, Wisdom to Live By, p. 121
Category: Obedience
10 Posts
Certainty
A man can obey before he is intellectually sure; and except he obey the command he knows to be right, he will never be sure.
— George MacDonald, Wisdom to Live By, p. 107
Our Business
Our business is not to think correctly, but to live truly. Then first will there be a possibility of our thinking correctly.
— George MacDonald, Wisdom to Live By, p. 85
We Like Rules.
Nothing gives one a more spuriously good conscience than keeping rules, even if there has been total absence of all real charity and faith.
— C. S. Lewis, Letter, 20 February 1955
Obedience
Obedience is the key to all doors; feelings come (or don’t come) and go as God pleases.
— C. S. Lewis, Letters, 7 December 1950
Accepting God’s Will
To accept the will of God never leads to the miserable feeling that it is useless to strive any more. God does not ask for the dull, weak, sleepy acquiescence of indolence. He asks for something vivid and strong. He asks us to co-operate with Him, actively willing what He wills, our only aim His glory. To accept in this sense is to come with all the desire of the mind unto the place which the Lord shall choose, and to minister in the name of the Lord our God there— not otherwhere. Where the things of God are concerned, acceptance always means the happy choice of mind and heart of that which He appoints, because (for the present) it is His good and acceptable and perfect will.
— Amy Carmichael, Gold By Moonlight
Walking With God
From the Spirit come both wisdom and revelation. We need them both to walk with God, need them in generous doses to navigate the dangerous waters of this world. If you’re the sort of person who tends to lean toward revelation (just asking God for direct guidance), then you need to balance your approach with wisdom. If you lean toward a wisdom approach to life, you must deliberately and consciously include revelation. Ask God….
Knowing that, we need to admit that risk is always involved when we encourage others to walk with God. People have done a lot of really stupid things in the name of following Jesus. For that reason there are folks in the church who don’t want to encourage this sort of risk, this “walking with God.” Over the centuries they have tried to eliminate the messiness of personal relationship with Jesus by instituting rules, programs, formulas, methods, and procedures. Those things may have eliminated some of the goofy things that happen when people are encouraged to follow God for themselves. But they also eliminated the very intimacy God calls us to.
— John Eldredge, Walking with God, p. 204
Coming Clean
The people do not earn their place in God’s covenant by obedience; rather, their obedience enables them to experience life with God. The sacrificial system is given not because God is keeping some divine bank account of blood money, which needs regular deposits to ward off divine judgment. Rather, it provides a way for the people to “come clean” whenever they break the covenant by disobeying God. Instead of punitive reprisal, they experience gracious restoration of the relationship. This is why the Law becomes such a source of joy, as we see in their celebrations and in the praise of the psalmists in the prayer book of the people.
— Richard J. Foster, Life with God, p. 88-89
What Will Happen
“To know what would have happened, child?” said Aslan. “No. Nobody is ever told that.”
“Oh dear,” said Lucy.
“But anyone can find out what will happen,” said Aslan. “If you go back to the others now, and wake them up; and tell them you have seen me again; and that you must all get up at once and follow me — what will happen? There is only one way of finding out.”
— C. S. Lewis, Prince Caspian, p. 142-143
Promised Power
It was the Place of Hope. It was the place where, after His resurrection and just before His ascension, He would speak to His disciples one last time. On that occasion, with the authority of a man who had just conquered death, Jesus would say, “Soon you will receive power, power to be My witnesses.”
He would promise them not the power to avoid trouble, but the power to live the only life worth living. He would promise them the same power that was keeping Him on course while His own worst nightmare came true. He knew these words would strike a chord, that they would thrill His disciples and fill them with hope.
“Soon you will have that power,” Jesus would say. “You will be able to remain faithful to Me no matter what happens in your life. If your spouse leaves you, you will be empowered to reveal My character. If your son is in jail, you will be able to go on loving him. That is your hope till I return. Never lose it!”
— Larry Crabb, Shattered Dreams: God’s Unexpected Pathway to Joy, p. 42