Perfect obedience is submitting to God’s perfect will. I have used the word perfect to emphasize our aspiration for excellence and not to cause anxiety nor lead us into bondage. As humans created by a merciful God we have free will but as follows of Christ, we are called to be obedient. God calls us to live righteously and be the salt and light of the earth. God’s expectation of us is that we submit to His good and perfect will. As always our role model is Jesus who despite his anguish at his impending death submitted and said..” yet not my will but yours be done!”
Submitting to God’s will is not easy and there are three
areas I currently struggle in. The first one is loving my enemies, the second
is praying unceasingly and the third is forgiving and remembering their sins no
more. I had difficulty knowing God’s will but when I accepted that all I have
to do to find out His will is to read His word, the previously unsurmountable
mountain is slowly but surely becoming a very small anthill. Then I had to
deliberately make the decision that His word is above all else. Above my
intellect, above my desires, my ambitions, and my plans. It takes courage to go
against one’s flesh, it takes courage to choose God all the time.
Loving one’s enemies
Loving one’s enemies is a lot more difficult than I first
thought. I used to think it meant not wishing nor causing them harm. But as
Jesus says ‘but love your enemies do good to them which means I
should treat them the same way I treat those I call friends. I have come to
terms with the fact that I should pray for them, sincerely and not
half-heartedly. I should smile at them, I should give them gifts, I should
celebrate their wins. Confession I have enemies in varying categories and the
overall goal is one day they will all be in the same category, the category
called friend.
Praying unceasingly
Pray unceasingly is something I am terrible at. This
is exacerbated by my self imposed high standard of praying. I have had to learn
to change my rules of prayer to reflect my new understanding. Rule number I
approach prayer as a child talking to the parent that loves them. Remove
rituals and rules attached to prayer in order to free up more opportunities and
spaces of prayer. Do it silently, under my breath, as a song, simply say thank
you! Gaze up into the heavens in wonder, in other words turn my worship and
pleasure in the simple things into life as a prayer offering or sacrifice.
Remove the formality with God simply be.
Forgiving and remembering their sins no more
Lastly, I struggle with forgiving and remembering their sins no more. I find it easier to forgive than to forget. I cling to remembering to justify my behaviour towards the person. Because if I purpose to forget how can I justify treating the person badly. I cling to the memory to remind God of how much I have forgiven. Remember God has a tendency to forget our sins and if your enemy is a believer believe me God has forgotten the sin. And I refuse to forget to hang on to the need to elicit sympathy. Admittedly I am a work in progress, I am working on submitting to God’s will to achieve perfect obedience.
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