Text:
2 Chronicles 20:5-10
Memory Verse:
“Are You not our God, who drove out the inhabitants of this land before Your people Israel, and gave it to the descendants of Abraham Your friend forever?” (2 Chronicles 20:7).
Obedience is the state or quality of being obedient. Obedient is the Owillingness to comply with the commands, orders or instructions of a higher authority.
Through the generations, the patriarch, Abraham, has become a reference point for believers. We see King Jehoshaphat seeking God’s deliverance from the impending invasion of Judah by the people of Moab, Ammon and Mount Seir. He reminded God that they were the descendants of His everlasting friend, Abraham, for which reason He should help them.
How did Abraham establish such an exemplary and enduring friendship with God? Through obedience. In none of God’s instructions to Abraham, including the difficult one to sacrifice his only son, Isaac, for whose birth he waited for 25 years, did Abraham disobey God. The reward for Abraham’s unalloyed obedience was all round blessings (Genesis 24:1). Above all, he became a friend of God from whom God could keep no secret and of whom He could boldly testify that He knew him and that he would raise his children and household after him to obey God (Genesis 18:17b-19). Jesus, also, modelled a life of total obedience to God for us. He made it clear that His food was to do the will of His Father who sent Him as it is written of Him, “Behold, I come… I
delight to do Your will, O my God, And Your law is within my heart” (Hebrews 10:7). Do you seek the manifestation of God’s all-round blessings in your life?
Emulate Abraham and Jesus, for such blessings come through obedience, not sacrifice or mere incessant prayers.
Prayer Points:
1. Father, I long to be a true friend of Yours, just like Abraham.
2. Lord, grant me grace to obey You in all things and to teach my household to do the same.
