Come Up Here And See

Excellence and Obedience are attainable by everyone!      

Our military defines excellence as mastering the basics, excellence is not an unachievable goal but something that everyone can achieve if they are disciplined to work hard at mastering the simple but important things of life.

Admiral William McRaven a Navy Seal says, “If you want to change the world, start off by making your bed, you have accomplished the first task of the day and it will give you a small sense of pride and this small task will encourage you to do another task and another and another.”

I see excellence is attainable if you are obedient. Eugene Peterson says that “obedience is a long walk in the same direction.”

Obedience is a daily decision. This is why the Word of God says that everyday we must choose whom to serve and excellence can be achievable daily.

Joshua 24:15 ESV And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the river, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

As I keep going forth in obedience, there will be ups, downs, curves on that road, stumbling blocks thrown at us from the enemy but all we need to do is keep moving forward in obedience. If and when we mess up all we have to do is, ask forgiveness from our Lord God Almighty. We are then able to get back up and start moving forward on that long road of obedience.

Obedience will not always be easy, it requires tenacity, persistence, discipline and most importantly the fear of the Lord to say no to the wrong things even if those wrong things seem cool, exciting, fun, easy and appealing. Obedience requires clear communication with the Holy Spirit and that is why Jesus says that we as His sheep hear His voice.

John 10: 27 AMP The sheep that are My own hear My voice and listen to Me; I know them, and they follow Me.

There have been too many times when I took a wrong step and was not mastering the simple basics of my life and fell off the obedient wagon. Thankfully by His grace I was okay but there were always consequences, sometimes long-term consequences, or short term. It did not matter how much I cried; I knew I was forgiven but the consequences did not go away. There were tears, regret and pain because I was not obedient and not walking in excellence.

This is why the Word of God says that obedience is better than sacrifices.

1 Samuel 15:22 ESV And Samuel said, “Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams.

To me the difference between obedience and sacrifices are that with sacrifices you are paying some sort of price up front and thinking that will be the only price. However, had I been walking in excellence, obedience, mastering the basics, the cost would have been much less, daily to telling myself Lisa no, until I came to the point that I found obedience has a joy each day. For the first while obedience may seem hard and that you do not want to do it but as you continue to master the basics, make your bed everyday like Admiral McRaven said, you will only want a clean bedroom with a bed made, sheets are tight when you climb into it at night and that nothing else will satisfy you.

When I think of mastering the basics I think of any job I am doing, how I keep my house, is it pleasant and cleaned and orderly for others to enjoy and not only myself. Am I doing my jobs with all the excellence that I can? The ministry positions that I volunteer for, am I doing those with all excellence and obedience? My Lord looks at each one because He is an excellent Lord and Saviour who left nothing undone and I am grateful.

The one thing that we always have to remember is that with obedience to the Lord is that we cannot always imagine the outcome, it may not make sense to our thinking, it may seem silly to turn right instead of left but God always has something bigger for us in our obedience to Him. We may not always see it immediately, but He rewards the obedient and He loves those who trust Him. When we honour God’s Word and His Voice miracles will happen when we are obedient.

Luke 5: 4-5 ESV  ⁴ And when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” ⁵ And Simon answered, “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets.” ⁶ And when they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish, and their nets were breaking. ⁷ They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink.

Holy Spirit I pray that You would show us the beauty of obedience and the joy that accompanies it. I also pray that our backbone would grow strong to say no to the obstacles of obedience such as laziness, fatigue, tiredness and especially when disobedience is all dressed up and looks so inviting and irresistible. Help us that we would seek Your voice, Your character, Your tenacity so that we are becoming more like You. Please encourage us in each step of obedience that we take especially if we are young in our walk because Lord just as we encourage and cheer a young child who is just beginning to walk, we record it, may You encourage those who are just beginning to walk in obedience towards You. In Jesus Name, Amen.