In Touch, the teaching ministry of Dr. Charles Stanley.

Next on In Touch, the thrill of obedience.

When somebody starts talking to you about obedience, do you have a negative or a positive attitude coming on?

Secondly, when somebody starts talking about obedience to you about your life, do you think in terms of success or failure?

And then a more important question than all of these is this. Do you obey God because you fear

the consequences of disobeying Him, or do you obey God because you really and truly want to

with all of your heart? When you think about times past that you've been challenged to obey God, times that you have obeyed him and then you look at the consequences, what do you remember? Do you remember what the consequences were when you were really challenged to obey him and you obeyed him? What were the consequences?

Well, what about those times when you were challenged to obey him and you didn't

obey him? What were the consequences then? When you think about obedience, do you feel

burdened about it? Is that some kind of a heavy burden on you? Or do you think about obedience

being a wonderful, thrilling adventure with Jesus Christ day after day in

your life? That's what it's all about. God never intended for us to think in terms of obedience

as being a bird. He does not intend for us to think about obedience as being something we have

to do, but rather something we want to do, motivated by a love

for him, motivated by our devotion to him, motivated by our desire to walk in his way, and to discover

what he's like, and to experience his blessing. And think about it for a moment. Is it not the wisest thing that you and I

could do? If God is the good God he says he is, and he certainly is, if he has stored up

goodness for us, if he has a good will and a good purpose and a good plan for your life,

is it not the wisest thing you and I could do, is to have a lifestyle of obedience?

To let obedience be the very guiding area of our life.

That is, everywhere we go, obedience here and obedience there and obedience here.

In other words, that's just the way we think.

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