What It Means to Obey

” Samuel replied:“Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the Lord? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams.” 1 Samuel 15:

22

If you know me you know I’m a talker. I can talk for hours if given the opportunity, communing with anyone on virtually anything because I love to communicate.

I text talk. Run my mouth on the phone. Have Facebook chats for days. You name it, I engage in it. (*shudder*…except Twitter, 140 characters is NOT enough to convey a thought for me; I acknowledge that I’m long winded.)

I’d go so far to say that a love of expression and communication is central to who I am. And as such finding myself in a space where I can’t communicate hurts.

Why? Because I feel God saying that I can’t.

There are situations in my life I want to give clarity to through speech and God says it’s not the season. And others where I’m led to silence for the sake of my own healing and so I can receive something necessary for my growth.

This is hard. There are times when God will call you to do something against your very nature, that grates against how you naturally seek to live your life. And you know what, it sucks…it seriously, seriously sucks but you’ll live. You’ll be ok.

You have to accept that there are things happening in the world around you beyond your knowledge or your control and make the decision to place your trust in God rather than in yourself.

You are being told to move or not move in a given way because the God of all better understands what is needed for you and those around you. He knows the good and perfect things as well as the hardship that is necessary for people to grow into who they are meant to be. Bless your heart but in your finite nature, you do not possess such a capacity.

So listen, heed the gentle (or not so gentle) prompting you feel in your gut/heart/spirit. Obey or yield to that understanding. It’ll save you (and others) totally avoidable head and heartaches. Obedience is better than sacrifice or as I’m understanding think of it this way: Listening now is better than saying sorry to God and others later.