Silent Obedience? - Wednesday May 08, 2013
Trust in Him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before Him; God is a refuge for us. Psalm 62:8
One Christmas morning I opened a delightful gift from my daughter-in-law-a fictional trilogy that would entertain me throughout the winter. In the following months, I slipped into an imaginary community of distraught parents, tight friendships, disappointed lovers, and dogmatic bishops. The setting was a religious order with a legalistic bent. God-fearing church members struggled with submitting to leaders whose attitudes were, "Be silent and do what we command because obedience to authority is God's will for you." Because this thinking was carried to the extreme in the plot, I began reflecting on God's attitude toward me as my Heavenly Authority. Does He ask the same of me, to be silent and just do as He says?
Our All-knowing Lover obviously knows what is best for us when He gives commands, yet He does not ask for silent obedience. God begs us to talk to Him! He is first and foremost a God of relationship, which includes dialogue. Again and again, God requests our prayers (talking to Him) and even commands us to pray! As mentioned in the above verse, the Lord asks us to pour out our innermost thoughts to Him. Jesus reiterated God's desire for dialogue when He told us to "ask...seek...and knock." And in the garden of Gethsemane, even though Jesus was completely obedient, He was not silent. Crying out to the Father, Jesus expressed deep, heartfelt requests to the One who holds all authority.
God invites your dialogue! Let Him know your questions, your hopes, your heart.
Submitted by:
Rita Bergen
Lee's Summit Community Church
Lee's Summit, Missouri
One-Year Reading Plan:
1 Samuel 2:22-4:22
John 5:24-47
Psalms 106:1-12
Proverbs 14:30-31
[Read
Online]
© 2025 Great Commission Association of Churches, Inc All rights
reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in
any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying,
recording, or by an information storage and retrieval system, without permission
in writing from the publisher.
Online Bible Services provided by
The Bible Gateway (TM) a service of
Gospel
Communications Network.
SCRIPTURE REFERENCB-ES: Unless otherwise identified, Scripture quotations are from the New American Standard Bible B) The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995. Scripture quotations marked (NIV) are from the Holy, Bible, New International Version, copyright B) 1973, 1978, 1984 by InternaB-tional Bible Society; (NKJV) are from New King James Version B) 1982 by Thomas Nelson; (NLT) are from the New Living Translation, B) 1996, Tyndale House Publishers; (ESV) are from English Standard VersionB., B) 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers; (TM) are from The Message B) 1993 by NavPress Publishers.