These lines are from the fourth stanza of the hymn “trust and obey”, lyrics by John Henry Sammis, and beautifully capture some of the blessings of obedience. I have previously written about obedience here, so will focus specifically on the blessing of obedience in this post.

I’ve been going through a Bible in one year reading plan, A while ago, I was reading the book of Leviticus, which is probably not the easiest of books to read. Around that time, there was something I felt led to do, but was worried about the impact and how to make it work. One day, the Bible reading for the day included Leviticus 25, and as I skimmed through the rules around the Sabbath Year , where God told the Israelites that they could sow their fields for six years, but not do so in the seventh year, and the rules around the Year of Jubilee as well, I got to verses 18-22, and verses 20-22 in particular jumped out at me… “Therefore you shall do my statutes and keep my rules and perform them, and then you will dwell in the land securely. The land will yield its fruit, and you will eat your fill and dwell in it securely. 20 And if you say, ‘What shall we eat in the seventh year, if we may not sow or gather in our crop?’ 21 I will command my blessing on you in the sixth year, so that it will produce a crop sufficient for three years. 22 When you sow in the eighth year, you will be eating some of the old crop; you shall eat the old until the ninth year, when its crop arrives.”

It felt like God was saying to me through His word that while I had been worried about what may happen if I did what I felt led to, He has the power, the capacity and ability to “produce a crop sufficient” for a longer period than it normally would be for. I therefore needed to trust more and worry less!

More recently, I got to 1 Kings 18, which records the time where there had been no rain for over three years, and in obedience to God, Elijah confronted Ahab and also destroyed the prophets of Baal. Elijah had been the one who prophesied that there will be no rain, and after the three and half year period and subsequent destruction of Baals prophets, He now prophesied that rainfall was imminent. He told his servant to tell Ahab “’Prepare your chariot and go down, lest the rain stop you’. 45 And in a little while the heavens grew black with clouds and wind, and there was a great rain. And Ahab rode and went to Jezreel. 46 And the hand of the Lord was on Elijah, and he gathered up his garment and ran before Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel.” Isn’t that amazing? Elijah had obeyed God’s instruction to show Himself to Ahab, despite knowing that his life would be at risk in doing so. Not only did his prophecy come true, but the hand of the Lord caused him to run faster than a chariot and get to Jezreel before Ahab!

Again, when we act in obedience to God, He can cause us to move much quicker than we normally would have on our own, in a way that we can even outpace those that have the advantage of ‘chariots’ carrying them.

In Luke 5, Jesus had been teaching the people out of Simon’s ship, by the lake of Gennesaret and afterwards told Simon to let down their nets. “And Simon answering said unto him, Master, we have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing: nevertheless at thy word I will let down the net. 6 And when they had this done, they inclosed a great multitude of fishes: and their net brake. 7 And they beckoned unto their partners, which were in the other ship, that they should come and help them. And they came, and filled both the ships, so that they began to sink.”

From nothing to overflowing nets… the difference? The Word of God. I love the phrase “Nevertheless at thy word…” God’s word really does change everything, especially when we obey it.

Recently I was looking for a pendant I had misplaced. I looked for it where I normally kept my jewellery but could not find it. I felt prompted to look in a particular place, but it wasn’t where I would normally put my jewellery, so after a perfunctory search, I gave up. I spent ages looking where I expected it to be, and even prayed while doing so. Again the same prompting. Finally I obeyed it and searched the place again, but properly this time, and lo and behold, I found it! Now I know it’s a small thing, but I learnt that we can be blessed even when we obey in the little things. In this instance, I would have saved a lot of time and energy if I had just obeyed in the first place. However, I am glad I eventually obeyed (and like in the case of Jonah, better late than never).

I would like to add that sometimes the blessing of obedience may not be immediate as in some of these cases, but the good news is that we can trust not only God’s word, but His timing as well. Also, sometimes our obedience may lead to blessings that are not necessarily directly for us but for others. We can remember though that that in itself is a blessing, that others are being blessed because of our actions. Even if it looks like nothing happened, and there is no tangible blessing we can see, or if it involves suffering afterwards, as in the case of Jesus obedience even to death on the cross, the blessing of knowing we are doing the Father’s will can be a great source of contentment and peace.

I pray that our prayer time won’t just be a period of asking and talking, but one of listening as well, and that when we hear from God, whether that be through His word in the Bible, through a word of knowledge, through His prophet (as in the case of Elisha and the widow with the jar of oil)[1], or through promptings of the Spirit, we will have the courage and faith to obey, and in doing so, we can build our faith in God and enjoy His glorious pleasure, rich favour, abundant joy and overflowing blessings.

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[1] “ Kings 4

Image source here.