Hammer on Anvil '

"If you love Me, keep My commandments" (John 14:15).


Have you ever felt like you were spinning your wheels but not really getting anywhere in your Christian walk? I have felt that way many times, nearly always because at some point I had refused to obey something God told me to do.

Disobedience does not bring forth life. We can busy ourselves with all sorts of "Christian" activities, but if our heart is not yielded to God, "all our righteous acts are like filthy rags" (Isaiah 64:6).

Obedience to God, on the other hand, always creates LIFE. Are you a conduit of the life-giving water that Jesus offered the Samaritan woman in John 4? Can God help himself to you anytime He pleases, for whatever purpose He pleases? Or are you so preoccupied with your own agenda that God can't even get your attention?

I think we all go through periods when we have grandiose ideas about ourselves and the things we want to do for God. Some of it may be genuine, but many times our pride and desire for recognition are behind it. We need to ask God to deliver us of ourselves so that we can enter into His purposes for our lives. Mother Teresa was a shining example of the type of humility a Christ follower must possess; she poured her life into the unlovely and the dregs of society, and the only recognition she desired was that of her Savior.

I leave you with a wonderful truth by Oswald Chambers:

My personal life may be crowded with small, petty incidents, altogether unnoticeable and mean; but if I obey Jesus Christ in the haphazard circumstances, they become pinholes through which I see the face of God, and when I stand face to face with God, I will discover that through my obedience thousands were blessed.