Easy Obedience

Charles Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening devotional has been a source of encouragement and thought-provoking wisdom for me over the past 5 years or so. There was a time when I read it consistently, but now I look back to it every once and a while. The other day I read the morning devotional and was struck by what he had to say.

“The rush is spongy and hollow, and even so is a hypocrite; there is no substance or stability in him. It is shaken to and fro in every wind just as formalists yield to every influence; for this reason the rush is not broken by the tempest, neither are hypocrites troubled with persecution. I would not willingly be a deceiver or be deceived; perhaps the text for this day may help me to try myself whether I be a hypocrite or no. The rush by nature lives in water, and owes its very existence to the mire and moisture wherein it has taken root; let the mire become dry, and the rush withers very quickly. Its greenness is absolutely dependent upon circumstances, a present abundance of water makes it flourish, and a drought destroys it at once.

Is this my case? Do I only serve God when I am in good company, or when religion is profitable and respectable? Do I love the Lord only when temporal comforts are received from his hands? If so I am a base hypocrite, and like the withering rush, I shall perish when death deprives me of outward joys. But can I honestly assert that when bodily comforts have been few, and my surroundings have been rather adverse to grace than at all helpful to it, I have still held fast my integrity? then have I hope that there is genuine vital godliness in me. The rush cannot grow without mire, but plants of the Lord’s right hand planting can and do flourish even in the year of drought. A godly man often grows best when his worldly circumstances decay. He who follows Christ for his bag is a Judas; they who follow for loaves and fishes are children of the devil; but they who attend him out of love to himself are his own beloved ones. Lord, let me find my life in thee, and not in the mire of this world’s favor or gain.”

If there is one thing that I have noticed while being back in the United States is the ability of the world to have a grip on a believer’s life. While I was in Israel my eyes were opened to how much people in the US are accustomed to submitting to comfort and ease. We don’t understand hardship and trials because we have surrounded us with things that allow us to avoid them. The biggest thing that we may encounter is a long line at the grocery store or too much homework to do. Never do we have to deal with the government arresting you because of your faith or waking up in a one room house with your six children all asking you where the next meal is coming from and yet most of the world lives like that. I must be willing to sacrifice it all for the sake of Christ my Savior who suffered to the point of death out of obedience to the Father. Suffering is good and we can persevere through it, not for our sake, but for Christ. We can be obedient in the same way, for we live by the same Spirit that Jesus did while He was on this earth.