July 30, 2013

http://www.gutenberg.org/catalog/world/readfile?fk_files=1471279&pageno=10

The king's officials answered him, "Your servants are ready to do whatever our lord the king chooses."  2 Samuel 15:15

Never having lived in a monarchy, the concept of a king is something I can only grasp through dictionary definitions and stories of Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table.  But to the earliest readers and writers of the Old and New testament, a king was a very real and relevant term and, in fact, person.  Obedience was immediate and mandatory.  The king's word was law.  "Let it be said.  Let it be done."

God is the King of Kings.  The Lord of Lord.  Obedience should be immediate and mandatory.

Frances Havergal (1836-1879) addressed this question of obedience in a piece she wrote in Opened Treasures.

"If we are really, and always, and equally ready to do whatsoever the King appoints, all the trials and vexations arising from any change in His appointments, great or small, simply do not exist. If He appoints me to work there, shall I lament that I am not to work here? If He appoints me to wait in-doors to-day, am I to be annoyed because I am not to work out-of-doors? If I meant to write His messages this morning, shall I grumble because He sends interrupting visitors, rich or poor, to whom I am to speak them, or "show kindness" for His sake, or at least obey His command, "Be courteous?" If all my members are really at His disposal, why should I be put out if to-day's appointment is some simple work for my hands or errands for my feet, instead of some seemingly more important doing of head or tongue?"

As Christians, if we truly believe that each second of each day is directed and overseen by God AND if we are to be 100% obedient to His direction, then each daily interruption, each flat tire, each annoying person, each lost computer file are all part of the work he has for us.  Nothing should be met with a begrudging spirit, an impatient huff or lost temper.  

Planned on yard work and it rained--What does God want you do to inside?  Hoping to finish that report but the boss changed the parameters--How can He be glorified through that trial?  Looking for that gold watch and received a pink slip instead--Where is God leading you?

A perfect King deserves perfect obedience.  While our obedience may never be perfected this side of Heaven, it should still be the goal of each Believer.