Willing and Obedient

Willing and obedient- it sounds like something we expect from our children.  And it is also something the Lord expects from His children.

Isaiah 1:19 (NKJV):

If you are willing and obedient, You shall eat the good of the land;

I looked up some of the key words in this passge to get their meaning in the original Hebrew, hoping to unearth a deeper meaning.  I researched the words willing, obedient and good.  And do you know what I found?  In this passage they actually mean willing, obedient and good!  Go figure.  So, it's pretty easy to see that our heavenly Father is promising that we will eat the good of the land if we are willing and obedient to Him. .

In order to eat the good, we must be both willing and obedient.  Sometimes the Lord will tell us to do something and we obey Him, but we may do so grudgingly or with a bad attitude.  This is like a parent who tells his child to clean their room and they throw a fit but stomp off to clean it.  Or, we may be willing to obey, but we postpone doing what He has instructed because it might mess up our schedule or inconvenience us.  This is similar to a child who was told to clean their room and did not fuss, but waited until they were told four or five times before they did it.  I have heard it said that delayed obedience is the same as disobedience.  Or we may only obey part of what we are told- like a child who doesn't really clean the room properly, but just throws his clothes and toys under the bed.  So, it is critical for us to have a willing attitude and be timely and complete in obeying Him.

When our attitudes and actions line up with this scripture, we are promised to eat of the good of the land.  When this passage was written, people lived in an agricultural society in which many people were farmers or shepherds. So they understood what it meant to eat the good of the land. To them, it meant they would partake of the good things in life.  In our current day, we could say this means having such things as financial abundance, good health, good relationships, influence, and peace of mind.

According to this scripture, the only outcome of being willing and obedient is a good outcome.  We can only benefit if we do as the Lord directs.  There is no negative scenario here- unless we are unwilling and/or disobedient.  It sounds like a no-brainer, right?  So, let's commit to being willing in attitude and obedient in action, and the good things will come our way.