What is the secret to increased obedience to God's word? Is it going to church more? Reading your Bible more? Memorizing Scripture? Working harder? Being more diligent? While those things could be an aid to increased obedience to God's word, they are useless without the key ingredient of faith. You may ask, "What does faith have to do with obeying the Bible. Isn't faith just for getting saved and then we just need to pull our bootstraps up and work hard in obeying God's commands." I am glad you asked.
Abraham provides and excellent example of how to answer this question. Genesis 26:5 states "Abraham obeyed my voice and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws." What a great description of Abraham that I am sure we wish could be true of our lives as well. What was the secret to Abraham's obedience? Hebrews 11:8 provides the answer when the author writes, "By faith Abraham obeyed." The secret to Abraham's obedience was his faith. His obedience did not proceed faith, but followed it.
This helps us see the root of our disobedience. If faith is the source of obedience, then unbelief is the source of disobedience. When we disobey God's word we are willfully choosing our own laws over God's law. We think our way is better than God's way. The root of this type of thinking is a lack of belief and trust that God's law will lead us to what our hearts deeply long for, which is happiness. Instead we are trusting that our laws will lead us to happiness. So the secret to faithful obedience is not doing more, but trusting more.
May God's grace supply us with the necessary faith that leads to obedience.
Cory
