Yesterday's blog post was on Naaman and Abraham and the execution of their faith and obedience to the instructions of the Lord. There were some parallels which were drawn in the lives of these two Bible personalities, which were important in demonstrating to us the extent of God's faithfulness when we have faith and obey Him. This is just a continuation of what was discussed in the previous post and I pray that God speaks to hearts and answers questions through this post.
I intend for this to be a short piece because I want it to be very straight-forward. Hebrews 11:1 defines what faith is. This could be faith in whatever and whomever but I choose this definition of faith in this verse to be a representation of the faith I have in God the Almighty. I hope that He is your choice also. Obedience, according to the Encarta Dictionary is the act of following rules and instructions and submitting to authority. So at least now that we have a perspective of both words, I hope we can delve into the matter at hand.
I wish to point out to you that having faith like that of Abraham without looking back, complaining or grumbling leads to automatic obedience, just like what we see in Genesis, in relation to Abraham and Isaac. Abraham required no persuasion to obey the Lord's instructions because he trusted in the Lord whom he served. On the contrary, one can be obedient but not have faith and this is what we observe in the case of Naaman. I doubt he would even have ended up in the River Jordan if Elisha's servant hadn't persuaded him. In Naaman's case, his obedience resulted in his faith in the Lord, while Abraham's faith in the Lord led to his obedience in the Lord. So what would have happened if Naaman had not obeyed?
Having faith is the most important key in our walk with the Lord and in the unleashing of His blessings upon our lives. This is because our faith, like that of Abraham, is an automatic assurance of our obedience in the Lord, because when we trust in the Lord, we give Him the reins of our lives, knowing in our hearts that He will not disappoint. Naaman could have refused to dip in the Jordan River, in spite of the persuasion he had received and what would have been the outcome? Basically, what God is telling us through the stories of these men is that it is safer for us to have our trust in God and then obey Him, rather than obey Him, which will hopefully lead to our faith in Him when He comes through for us.
You see the risk in obeying without faith is that: what if God does not come through for us at the time we choose to obey Him? Does that mean that we will never believe in the goodness of the Lord? This is serious oh!!! It is not safe at all!!! The safest and wisest approach, I believe, is to cultivate our faith in the abilities of the King of Kings so that the obedience to His instructions will be the by-product of that faith, so that the floodgates of Heaven will pour out blessings upon our lives and save the things we find dear.
Naaman was blessed in actually coming to believe in the goodness of the Lord, but please do not take that risk! Faith is more important. Do you have faith in the Lord?
God bless you!!!
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