I saw where a friend of mine posted about 30 life principles that Charles Stanley preached and lived by. I was intrigued and began to read the 30 and thought to myself, wow, these are good! All these 30 messages can be viewed online at
intouch.org. Stanley was the pastor of the First Baptist Church in Atlanta, GA for over 50 years, and he is well known for his faithfulness in teaching the Bible on his InTouch TV broadcast. Stanley passed away on April 18 of this year at 90 years of age.
Last week, we looked at Life Principle Number 1: Intimacy with God. This week, we will look at Stanley's second life principle, which is: "A Life of Obedience. Obey God and leave all the consequences to Him." I heard him preach these words in San Antonio about 10 years ago. It spoke to my heart then and does so today also.
I will share some of his teachings with you adapted from his study Bible, called The Charles F. Stanley Life Principles Bible. His biblical reference is
Exodus 19:6:
"'And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.' These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel." God called the nation of Israel and gave them this important priestly assignment. They were to obey God by interceding as priests on behalf of the nations. The verse before,
Exodus 19:5, is our focal text for today's devotion. God told Moses to relay this message to His people, the nation of Israel. God told them, as He tells us, His children today, that if we obey Him, He will bless us.
Dr. Stanley writes, "Obedience can be a challenge, especially when we feel tempted to believe that we stand to lose more through our obedience than we might gain. However, obeying God is essential to pleasing Him—not just in times of temptation, but always." This is very true. God always has our best interests in mind. He desires to bless us, and He will indeed bless us when we simply obey Him, doing what He clearly tells us to do.
Perhaps you have heard this statement before, "Partial obedience is still disobedience." We will be tempted to rationalize and try to compromise what God tells us. The better option would be for us to trust God and then simply obey what He tells us to do.
Is there a command from God or an impression by His Holy Spirit for you to do something, say something, go somewhere, etc.? If the Lord is calling you to it, then obey God, and as Dr. Stanley teaches, and leave the results to God. He will bless you far more than you can imagine.
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