Episode #254 Hearing vs. Doing: The Truth About Spiritual Obedience – Unforced Rhythms of Grace

Hey friend, have you ever noticed that it's easy to hear a good sermon or read a great devotional or feel inspired by something in the Bible or in a social media scroll, but then go right back to life as usual? But what if God is speaking, and we're not tuning in long enough to follow through? Today, we're talking about the connection between hearing God and actually living out what he says, because obedience isn't about doing more. It's about trusting more, and I'll be honest with you, sometimes I do great at following what God shows me, and other times, I ignore it, or I forget.

But there's a huge connection between hearing and obeying when we're talking about our relationship with God. In Richard Foster's book, Celebration of Discipline, he says, "There is stress upon changed behavior as a result of our encounter with the living God. Repentance and obedience are essential features in any biblical understanding of meditation. It is this continual focus upon obedience and faithfulness that most clearly distinguishes Christian meditation from its Eastern and secular counterparts."

Now I want to pause here for a minute because I think definitions are important. And yes, I am a word nerd, but especially on this topic. I misunderstood what the bible meant about some of this instruction for a lot of my years in the faith. And this quote here referenced changed behavior and repentance, which I want to talk about for a minute. So changing our behavior is something that we partner with God to walk out. If that concept is new to you, check out some of the recent episodes. We're talking a lot about that because I used to think that it was up to me to change my behavior.

Now we all as humans have choices to make. We get to choose how we behave. We have free will, but it's not only up to us to change our behavior. Sometimes the change that we long for isn't happening because we're relying too much on ourselves and we don't know how to partner with God as he does the transforming work in our heart and in our lives. We have a role to play, we partner with God, but we're not alone in trying to achieve our transformation.

The other word here is repentance, which means to think again and choose a different course. This is one of those ways that we change our behavior. We hear and we repent. We say, “Oh, I was on this path. Now I'm flipping around and I'm going the other way because I've learned differently.”

I used to think that repentance meant groveling or I'm trying to do good things for God so that maybe he would forgive me. I thought repentance meant I needed to feel really bad for my actions, which could include genuine guilt, but also included a lot of shame. That's not what it means.

But repentance is not an emotional response. It's the recognition that happens when I think again, when I reconsider how I am living and I choose a different course to better align with who God is and what he offers me. So we're jumping ahead here to Psalm 119, and I'm going to read verses 97, 101, and 102 in the ESV.

And it's talking about obeying what we hear from God in his word. It says,

“The psalmist exclaims,
Oh how I love your law!
It is my meditation all the day.
I hold back my feet from every evil way,
in order to keep your word.
I do not turn aside from your rules,
for you have taught me.” (Ps. 119:97, 101, 102 ESV)

The psalmist is talking about hearing from the Lord. meditating on his word, on his law, and acting differently because of it.

Richard says that "God spoke to them not because they had special abilities, but because they were willing to listen." (Richard J. Foster, Celebration of Discipline)

The first problem we run into is when we want God to talk with us, but we're not willing to hear and obey when God has something to say.

It talks about this problem in James 1, which some of us might know. Verse 22 talks about not just being hearers of the word, but doers, truly listening means. That we have to be willing to obey. And so I'm going to read James 1, 23- 25 in The Message. It says,

James 1: 22-25 MSG
22-24 Don’t fool yourself into thinking that you are a listener when you are anything but, letting the Word go in one ear and out the other. Act on what you hear! Those who hear and don’t act are like those who glance in the mirror, walk away, and two minutes later have no idea who they are, what they look like.

25 But whoever catches a glimpse of the revealed counsel of God—the free life!—even out of the corner of his eye, and sticks with it, is no distracted scatterbrain but a man or woman of action. That person will find delight and affirmation in the action.

And so here's a question I encourage you to take with him and to talk with him more about this topic:

God, where can I grow in trusting you through steps of obedience?

Have a good talk.

And if you've been encouraged by this content, please share it with a friend and help them grow in their conversational relationship with God too!

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