If you love Me…
My will and Yours a tug of war
But I'll stay yielded
I'll stay yielded
I will not dare to call You Lord
If I don't mean it
If I don't mean itKeep me tender and tethered to Your decrees
Let my love be a covenant that I keepI will obey
I will obey
Not because I have to
But because I love YouSweeter than honey on my lips
Is Your teaching
Is Your teaching
Show me the way I'll walk in it
I will Jesus
I will JesusBe the light and the lamp
That my feet follow
Keep the eyes of my heart
On the narrow road“Obey” by Tiffany Hudson
If you could give God a gift, what would you give Him? This isn’t a trick question. Think about it. What would you offer the One who gave up His life so that you could spend now and eternity with Him?
It can be hard to imagine giving God any gift at all, knowing that He is the Creator of all things. He lacks nothing. What do we have that can even partially amount to what is worthy of a King? While there is nothing that we can give that could live up to what He deserves, we can try to give Him what He asks for.
“If you love me, keep my commands...” (John 14:23a). In this verse, Jesus is telling us exactly how He and The Father want to be loved. He wants us to not just read/hear all that He has to say, but to also put it into practice. Love does not only consist of listening. Love requires action. Just as James 1:22 says, “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.” This is for our benefit and the benefit of those around us.
My favorite lyric in the song above is “I will not dare to call You Lord if I don’t mean it.” The truth is, we do not have to obey God. It is perfectly within our abilities to disobey Him, and that was proven all the way back to the garden of Eden. However, to intentionally disregard God’s word while still claiming that we love Him is a refusal to truly honor Him for who He is—Lord.
I see the repetition of phrases in this song as not just a clever musical idea, but a recommitment. “I’ll stay yielded. [Yes, Lord. I mean what I’m saying.] I’ll stay yielded.” It’s pretty brilliant to me. So many times we say things because we know, intellectually, that it is right (and even holy), but our hearts are far from meaning it. Unintentionally, we settle for giving God a picture of the only gift He has ever wanted, instead of giving Him the real thing.
If we are going to trust God with our eternity, trusting Him with today should be up for no debate. Obeying His word is our way of saying, “I hear what You have asked me to do, and because I trust that You are God and You want what’s best for me, I will obey. Not because I have to, but because I love you…and I trust Your ways.” Just as Jesus did in the Garden of Gethsemane (Matthew 26:36-45), we ought to pray that God’s will would be done over our own.
You may not be ready to pray this kind of prayer. Maybe you’re hesitant to trust anyone apart from yourself. I’ve been there more times than one. I’ve been hurt by family, close friends, and even the church, and I was convinced that I was the only person who wouldn’t let me down. If you’re at this point, I get it. I just want to encourage you to give one more thing a try.
Trust God. Obey what He says (pick one thing! even if it’s just for a couple of weeks!), and see what happens. I promise He will not disappoint. If you feel like He has, I would challenge you to think about if it was truly God who let you down, or the people of God, who are just as broken and in need of a forgiving Savior as anyone else.
I have never regretted trusting God. I may not have liked how things played out in the moment, but hindsight is always 20/20, and I can see how God’s hand was moving in moments of deep pain, heartache, and disappointment. The few times I can’t see it, I choose to trust beyond it, because what I have seen has proven that He is worthy of my trust.
Try Him for yourself. Look to the Bible to differentiate what people have made God out to be verses who He has revealed Himself to be in scripture. (I recommend starting with the Gospel of John.) I have found that He really is good, and He is deserving of being loved rightly. Giving God the gift of Your obedience is all He asks of us. After everything He’s done, isn’t He worth it?
Listen To The Song!
Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/track/1co7zbTH9iXSLJWHnPxLj4?si=aee885862f7b4fb9
Apple Music - https://music.apple.com/us/album/obey/1690945369?i=1690945533
