Obey His Commands

Last week I started looking at a very key verse in the book of Joshua:

Joshua 22:5 But be very careful to keep the commandment and the law that Moses the servant of the LORD gave you: to love the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to obey his commands, to hold fast to him and to serve him with all your heart and all your soul."

This is a warning that Joshua is giving to all the people. His cautions them to keep the commandment and the law that Moses had given to them. This was the law that Moses had received directly from God. Joshua then broke it down for them into 5 simple parts. He told them to first love the LORD your God. Then he told them to walk in all his ways.

The third thing was to obey his commands. God has given us His Word as a guidebook for our lives. There are principles for living throughout this book that will only lead us in the right direction. But what good is reading and memorizing God’s Word if we don’t obey? We must faithfully obey his commands – no matter what. I guess it must seem obvious that keeping the commandment would include obeying his commands. But for many, this must not be so obvious.

Many look at the Bible, and Christianity, and think it is just a list of a bunch of rules, a list of do's and dont's. How can a Christian ever enjoy life, if all they ever have time to do is try to obey all the commands. They say Christianity is too restricting, a joy-killer, all about taking fun our of life.

But the reality is, rules are good. Rules actually give us freedom. Let me explain. I drive a car, on the road, just about every day. I noticed a solid double yellow line down the middle of the road. I'm sure we all know what that is there for. But suppose I decided one day that the double yellow line was just too restrictive - a joy-killer! I don't have to follow that rule, I just want to have fun! In fact, I don't even have to stay on this road! Who made these rules anyway? I just want to have fun!

Of course we all know what would happen. I, or someone else, would certainly get killed or seriously injured when my car collided with another, or a tree, or a house...

Rules are not there to ruin our lives. They are there for our own good, our own freedom. God knows what we need. God, the creator of the universe, has given us commands that are for our own good. He wants us to be successful…and we will only experience victory through obedience to Him.