Faith in God is in the first brush stroke used to paint every Christian life. We are the brush. God is the painter. To be a masterpiece, the brush must not control. It must follow the hand of God.

Unfortunately, we sometimes will envision the end result that God wants, and will then wrest control from Him in the process of getting there. The reason we do that is because we don’t realize that we are no longer truly trusting Him as the artist of our faith. Subconsciously, we tend to want to demonstrate how faithful we can be in our own estimation of what is right.

For instance, God instructs us to perform something. He expresses that it be done a certain way. We then set out to do it, but then will add a twist to it. It’s okay to do that, we think, because God certainly will be pleased that in responding to Him, we cleverly thought of another means to His end that still will result in His glorification.

An example from the Old Testament will hopefully clarify what I’m getting at. In 1 Samuel 15: 2, 3, God instructed King Saul to destroy everything in the land of the Amalekites. Instead, King Saul captured and kept the Amalekite king alive. Saul also had his soldiers protect and take some of the sheep and cattle as spoils of war. Nothing wrong with that, Saul reasoned. After all, they spared the best of the sheep and cattle, which would be sacrificed to the Lord.

The problem though, as you can see, is that everything wasn’t destroyed. In Saul’s mind, it was okay to vary from the Lord’s instructions because the Lord would still be honored with a sacrifice. Don’t we do that too? Don’t we submerge God’s commands within reasoning that seems right to us, while at the same time thinking we’re right with the Lord? And don’t we think we’re right with Him because, sacrificially, we offer our lives, as we engage in religious rituals and duties and in serving others?

Here’s God’s view on the matter. In 1 Samuel 15: 22, God chastised Saul through His prophet Samuel. Samuel said to Saul, “Has the Lord as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams.” Samuel then went on to explain, in vs. 23, why obedience is better than sacrifice. “For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and insubordination is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, He has also rejected you from being king.”

That chastisement applies to us today. So it will do us well to remember that while sacrificing our lives to God is important, and is considered worship (Romans 12: 1), it is obedience that keeps worship from being a mere formality. Obedience is more important to the Lord, for it enlivens worship with holy passion for, encouragement in, and intimacy with the ways of the Divine.

As the prophet said; when we disobey God, He looks at us as being rebellious and arrogant, both of which is a sin. Continuing to sin in this manner is to toy with being separated from Him (Isaiah 59: 2).

That’s not to say we should obey Him in order to be saved, for that is legalistic. We should obey because we believe in Him, and because that kind of faith is the only paint the Master will use to brush across the canvass of our lives. We should obey because, without a doubt, we know that He is trustworthy and right in all He instructs. We should obey Him as proof that we love Him. In doing so, we follow Jesus’ demonstration of love through obedience; the love that led all the way to the cross.