“Don’t speak evil against each other, my dear brothers and sisters. If you criticize each other and condemn each other, then you are criticizing and condemning God’s law. But you are not a judge who can decide whether the law is right or wrong. Your job is to obey it. God alone, who made the law, can rightly judge among us. He alone has the power to save or to destroy. So, what right do you have to condemn your neighbor?”
Did you see that one sentence right there in the middle? “Your job is to obey it.” Oh yes! That is the one line that settles it all for me.
When I had first handed my life over to Jesus, I voraciously read Scripture and I had long hours with God as He led me to this passage and that. I was a military wife, and I had much time alone when my husband was deployed. I was able to ask God questions about the Scripture I was reading, and I was able to ask Him boldly to show me the things I wanted, needed to see. God always showed up. God always answered my questions in a way that I could interpret. But this one thing He hid from me until now. “Your job is to obey it.” It’s so simple. It’s painfully easy.
I liked the way the Scriptures told me what to do, and I liked hearing how other people were obedient to God. I knew that I was doing right when I obeyed Scripture and did what I heard God calling me to do. Years into ministry, things got messy. The world started changing at warped speed and I was thrown into people’s lives that I would have otherwise not had contact with. Serving God has taken me to places I never imagined I’d go. Inside myself and with others, to learn more about what He has to say about it.
I have always been a little different. I’ve always spoken what I thought and felt. Part of my growth was to learn to listen, to learn to hear more than words and to make sense of the irrational things that people did, to know how to effectively minister to them on behalf of the God I serve. To do the right thing. My job is to obey.
When I am obedient to God, I’m focused on self and not focused on others. Which makes my life pretty simple.
Momma Rich's 