yearn...

Why was Jesus the perfect man, and the perfect example? 

Simply because He lived a life of unswerving devotion, simple love,

and...this is probably the hardest for us to believe and live out...perfect obedience

I think that in the past few months, 

the hardest thing I've seen and learnt is that,

obedience has a price, 

and when God calls us to that, 

He simply asks...

no guilt trips, no persuasion, no glib words, no smart comebacks

and then He waits patiently for the response...

The heart that is ready to follow, pays the cost, and goes,

while the one that does not, shrinks back, and shrivels up

How many sweat drops of blood did Jesus shed in Gethsamane?

How long did He struggle with God for? 

We do not know those answers...

We just know Jesus obeyed, and thus became our atonement on that cross.

And the struggle today is the same, 

it's not about sin, or about evil influences, 

it's always been about us...

more accurately, the war has always been within...

God asking us if we'd obey him, 

us struggling so hard because our mortal flesh wants something else so much,

and then it's a tug of war within our desires, and we see the flesh rear it's ugly head

"We are convinced that the gap holding back most believers is not the gap between what they know and what they don't know. 

It's the gap between what they know, and what they're living.

Many Christians are trafficking in unlived truth.

They are educated beyond their obedience."

~Dave Browning~

At the end of the day, God has given us enough so that we KNOW, 

but the KNOWING, does not mean we are DOING what God asks of us

It is a question of obedience & disobedience...

In our fleshly nature, we will always struggle...

God says to give it up, but we fight to hold on...

and in the holding on, what was once good...turns ugly...

To obey, just to obey...

Such a simple word, yet it takes a lifetime of surrender to learn it