Lenten Devotional Day Twenty-Two
A close look at our sinful hearts can be kind of a beatdown, but that is certainly not the objective. These words of Paul David Tripp are so apt: “your obedience is never a fearful payment, but a hymn of gratitude to a God who met you where you were and did for you what you could not have done for yourself.”
Have you ever thought about obedience as a “hymn of gratitude”? What a lovely way to frame it. Not as drudgery, not as reluctant compliance, not as earning favor, not as a hopeless attempt to even the scales, not as submission to an authority attempting to curb our fun, but as a hymn of gratitude.
Parents sometimes use the guidance of “right away, all the way, and with a happy heart” to summarize obedience. But how often do we tell ourselves that our obedience to God’s Word should be happily born out of gratitude, immediate, and complete?
Charles Spurgeon said, “You are a great sinner, but He is a greater Savior.” This truth should have us continually singing hymns of gratitude!
Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age. Matthew 28:19-20
Digging Deeper:
Where are you grudgingly obedient in life?
Where are you expecting favor in exchange for obedience?