5:51 AM

The definition of obedience, in accordance with Webster is:  “Submission to the will of authority or the act to obey.”  

In Holman’s Bible Dictionary, obedience is defined as hearing the Word of God and acting accordingly.” (hear, trust, submit and surrender to God and his Word)

For the past few mornings, I’ve woken up at 5:51 AM.  Now you see, I specifically asked God in prayer to wake me up so that I may hear from Him with direction, inspiration, fellowship etc, all the good stuff.  But when He did, I rolled over and promptly fell back asleep until my alarm sounded.  This is not a good example of obedience….

Not today, this morning was different.  I started to fall into the same repeat pattern of previous mornings, but my dog Stella walked over to my side of the bed and loudly stomped.  Now Stella is a hundred and thirty pound Great Pyrenees and in her seven years of existence, she has never done that, ever.  If you are thinking, come on!  Why would God use your dog, then you probably need to read where God used the jackass! (2 Peter 2:16) He is a magnificent God of surprises and delights and is creative in His deliverance of messages, especially those He instructs in obedience.  The Bible is full of stories that illustrate just this, but we are going to talk about one of my favorites today.  

So there was Jonah, a prophet of the Lord.  God asked him to go to Nineveh and call out the habitants there to repent, but this guy did not want to do anything close to what God asked him to do.  He literally ran away in the opposite direction of where God called him to go.  He even paid money to board a ship to Tarshish, a remote city because he thought he could hide from the pursuit of the Lord.  This act of disobedience soon brought with it destruction, not only for Jonah but for those Jonah surrounded himself with on the ship.  The storm is described in the Word as a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship threatened to break up. (Jonah 1:4 ESV)  The crew members and captain of the ship all served pagan gods and were all in prayer to each trying to figure out whose inequity had caused such a horrible storm.  They confronted Jonah, he admitted it was his disobedience to his God, the one true God of Israel that was the cause.  After they threw Jonah overboard, the sea immediately calmed and everyone on the ship turned to God and worshiped only Him from then on and they were saved.  After experiencing the horrendous storm turn to a dead calm, they were more than convinced!  

Now as for Jonah, his disobedience resulted in him being swallowed up by a big fish and stuck in the belly of the whale for three days.  Short story, even shorter, Jonah repented, the fish spat Jonah out on the shore of Nineveh and he delivered the message he was originally instructed by God to deliver.  All in Nineveh repented and all were saved.  

All of the round-about, misery and turmoil could have been avoided with just a simple act of obedience. You see, what God intends for us will be, but our response to His call determines the journey.