Reflection for the Week
Sunday 26th November 2017
On Obedience to God
Many years ago, someone told me about an observation they had made about the word ‘behave’… and it’s stuck in my mind ever since.
You see you can split the word into two parts – ‘be’ and ‘have’.
As Christians we are to behave in obedience to God. When we know God, we find that we have God within us. And the more we know God, the more we will feel that we have God within us.
Jeremiah tells us something about this ‘I will put my law within them and I will write it on their hearts’ (Jeremiah 31: 33a)… So, we have God in us… what we have is God
Perhaps the word behave can be understood to mean that we are to be what we have. Our behaviour should reflect that we are God’s love in the world, we should be the person God would have us be. We exhibit God’s love and inhabit a world in need of people who can behave, be obedient to God and God’s good ways of living… people who can be what we have.
Through Jeremiah God also told us ‘I will be their God and they will be my people’ (Jeremiah 31: 33b). This promise is true 3,000 years on. The Lord God is our God and we are his people in every predicament and trial of life. So, when it’s difficult to know how to behave, how to be obedient to God we are to be what we have in our dealings with each other… God has promised us that what we have is God within us.
Revd. Janine Atkinson