Counterfeit Obedience

Like many of the devotionals from My Utmost for His Highest, the June 8th devotional contains a real nugget of wisdom. A couple of sentences in particular stuck me like a ton of bricks.

The counterfeit of obedience is a state of mind in which you create your own opportunities to sacrifice yourself, and your zeal and enthusiasm are mistaken for discernment. It is easier to sacrifice yourself than to fulfill your spiritual destiny, which is stated in Romans 12:1-2. It is much better to fulfill the purpose of God in your life by discerning His will than it is to perform great acts of self-sacrifice.

Whoa! Oswald Chambers tells us that we fake obedience by performing great acts of self-sacrifice. How often have I done that. How often have I pretended to serve God — to act in obedience to Him… even to the point of great acts of self sacrifice (read that "be the martyr"), when all along I was doing it for self-serving reasons rather than acting in His service. He tells us that it is easier to fake it than follow Romans 12:1-2.

Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

Our spiritual duty for worship is to present our bodies as a living sacrifice. Be very clear that any animal presented to Yahweh as a sacrifice under Levitical law was 100% committed — no backing out, no escape. If we are to present ourselves as a living sacrifice, our commitment must be the same, even of the result may be different. The blood of the sacrifice has already been offered by Jesus at Calvary, but we must still claim that redemption by total and complete surrender and abandonment to the will of God. Instead of being like the world, we are to to the perfect thing that Jesus has already given us the example for. The better thing that we should do is to discern God's will (requires listening to God and His spirit at work in us) and then to fulfill God's purpose for us. I like the way Mordecai put it in Esther 4:13-14

Do not think that because you are in the king's house you alone of all the Jews will escape. For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father's family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?

He reminds us that God's Will will be accomplished. The only question is whether we will be in or out of that will. We need discernment to determine if God has perfectly positioned us to be the hands, feet, heart, etc. that He will use to accomplish His will. If we are to be part of it, we are to start with obedience, and proceed through surrender and abandonment that we might end up in full contentment basking in the glory of His will.