Willing and Obedient: Living in Grace and Embracing God’s Abundance
Isaiah 1:19
If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land;
I have tried in the past to be obedient. I would muster my will power to shift my behavior to be a good Christian.
I was always trying to tame and regulate my dead flesh. I would pray and pray for victory over temptation but would eventually fall short. I was attempting to be a Christian rather than a son. Father didn’t send Jesus Christ to save us into a religious sect. He sent Jesus to regenerate us into His sons and daughters by making us new creations.
He could have done it any way He desired but He chose grace. He chose obedience to grace and mercy over obedience to a religious system and the way that seems right to a man. He chose freedom from religion and not bondage to judgement and condemnation.
Father’s freedom is complete liberty with no strings attached. He does not want a robotic type of relationship with us but rather He desires intimacy and conversation with us. Father places all of His delight in His saints, His sons and daughters. Father greatly desires a conversation with us in which we listen more than we talk.
We must train ourselves to hear His voice so that we can grow in grace and enjoy abundant life. His invitation in this passage is fulfilled in Jesus Christ’s perfect life allowing us through new birth to be made righteous, holy, and blameless. In Christ we have fulfilled the law and are considered perfectly obedient.
Our job is to accept this marvelous gift, be thankful and agree with the Holy Word of God. One of the greatest benefits of believing in our Christ given status is that we automatically produce fruit in becoming more Christlike. Believing we have been made righteous begets righteousness.
Believing we are now made holy begets more holiness. Knowing that in Christ we have fulfilled the law sets us free to be completely obedient and our behavior will follow suit. Our obedience is not achieved through our own strength or the strength of a religious system but rather has been granted to us by conversion and activated by trust in the finished work of Christ and agreement with the Holy Word of God.
Then we will be free, no matter what our circumstances happen to be, to enjoy the abundance of the land (family, friends, territory and the desires of our hearts) Father has given us in this lifetime and in the ages to come. Hallelujah!
Father, I am so grateful for Your grace and mercy. I am made new because of Your love. You are faithful to a thousand generations of those who love You and I am truly blessed by Your benevolence.
I will focus my pray time on listening to Your voice so that I may be able to perform all of the plans that You have designed for me to fulfill. I am excited to move into the next phase of Your glorious plan and I know that You will provide everything that I need to accomplish Your great purposes.
I greatly desire to fulfill all of the things that You laid up in my heart when You knit me together in my mother’s womb. I am grateful for my inheritance and my circle of influence. I will lay hands on the sick and expect them to be healed. I will receive abundance from Your storehouses. I am full of thanksgiving for the finished work of Jesus Christ, my Lord and Savior. I love You. In Jesus name. Amen.