.obedience.

This seems to be coming up a lot these days: obedience. Simple concept, difficult follow-through.

This year, I am leaning towards 2 very similar verses to hang onto as my key verses for 2010.
1 Corinthians 10:31 - So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.
Colossians 3:23 - Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men,

This is mostly because I've recently been thinking about my day-to-day schedule. A lot of the things that I do during the week are church-related and, at the surface-level, "honor God." However, I haven't been doing very well at offering all of my heart while doing it.

Attitude: it's at the core of what we do and almost serves as the dividing line between a mere activity and worship that is pleasing to God.

This year, I want to be intentional in viewing everything I do as worship...and as a result, striving for excellence. For His sake...He is worthy of no less than the absolute best I can give! That's why I love these verses - they break things down and make everything very simple: it's about doing it for Him, not me or anyone else.

So, obedience...

It really hit home when I was studying with syunie earlier this week. We were in John 17, Jesus' longest recorded prayer in the Gospels.
Verse 4 says: ⁴I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do.

Jesus' obedience is what brought God glory! He Himself emphasizes obedience to His disciples earlier in John 14:23: Jesus replied, "If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching.
But why do we make obedience seem so much harder, so much more complicated that what it really is?

A few weeks ago, I got a very clear picture of what simple obedience looks like: while the youth leaders were planning for the retreat, we called a few people to help out. I was really encouraged by their very simple and eager responses to our requests: "I'll do whatever you want me to." It made me think how much it must please God to hear those very words from us. That's the attitude I long to have before my King!