We adopted an older dog many years ago. She was a gorgeous German shepherd with a playful disposition.

Each morning, she greeted me with a tail thumping the carpet as she lied on her side waiting for me to pet her. Her favourite games were “tug-of-war” and “catch”. She invited me to play with her every day and seemed never to tire of the sport.

She joined the kids and me as we walked through the field to the bus stop each day. She pranced through the tall grass, sprinted from one groundhog hole to the next. She was fun to watch but not as obedient as I would’ve like.

When I called her, she often looked up and then darted away pretending she didn’t hear me. When I whistled, she teased me by running toward me only to change direction half way and bolt to another hole. She was in desperate need of obedience training.

Obedience is something that is talked about a lot in the Bible.

Simply put, God says that if we are obedient, He will bless us.

But too many times we call on God for His abundant blessings, yet ignore God’s request for obedience.

It reminded me of days when I asked my children to clean their bedrooms but upon later inspection I was told they “forgot”.

Or when I asked them to empty the dishwasher and I was assaulted with whines about the difficulty of such a task.

Or when I asked them to take the dog for a walk and they promised to do it – but later, Mom.

Then at the end of the day, they turned to me and asked for a special treat. Why were they surprised when I turned down their request? Why did they think they were owed such a favour?

Yet so many times we can act the exact same way with God. We ignore His commands to love our neighbour because we “forgot”.

Or we don’t take time to read and study His Word but instead whine that it’s too hard.

Or we refuse to tithe our money, promising that we’ll do it later. Then when we look to the heavens and ask God to bless us, we act surprised when the answer is, No.

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In the life of a Christian, there is no substitute for obedience. (tweet this)

Share in the comments how you’ve experienced the blessings of obedience.