OBEDIENCE...behold to obey is better than sacrifice by FaithfulnessII NGDw

Wednesday, 26th of October 2022 Devotion. 

TOPIC:Obedience

TEXT: 1Samuel 15:22

     _"And Samuel said, Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice,  and to hearken than the fat of rams"._

The Lord desires that we obey Him, than make sacrifices to Him. His heart is always gladdened whenever He sees His children humbly obey Him. But His heart is broken when He sees His beloved and cherished children go against His will. 

Those who obey God never end up with regrets but those who don't live and wallow in regrets.

Saul, when instructed by God to destroy a city, obeyed but not entirely.  He obeyed partially by destroying the entire city he was instructed to destroy but kept and took with himself, some animals and the king of the destroyed land. This was against the will of God and when Saul even said that he used them as sacrifice for God, God told him, “To obey is better than sacrifice”. (I Samuel 15).

 _”And He said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of." (Genesis 22:2KJV)_ 

Abraham, had long sought for a child from God with Sarah, When God would give them a child, He gave them at old age and God still demanded the given child was used as a burnt offering for Him. It was indeed a difficult thing to do for anyone but Abraham obeyed the voice of the Lord. 

If he had not obeyed, he would have really lost Isaac out of his will and knowledge, but His obedience to God served him right. 

 _”Now the LORD had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah.  And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.”(Jonah 1:17KJV)._

 Jonah was going to outsmart God by running to another city, thinking the God who had instructed him to go to the city of Nineveh was not going to see Him. His disobedience caught up with him and ended up in the belly of a fish for three days and night. 

No one disobeys God and not face the consequence.

God loves that we obey Him, He wants a total and not delayed or partial obedience from us.

*Prayer:*

Father, we pray for the grace to obey you always, even when it doesn't appear right in our eyes. Teach us Lord to obey you as you wish.  Amen.