By Kimberly Davidson
My husband and I are empty nesters and “dog people.” Who isn’t a dog person—dog spelled backwards is god! (Okay… so maybe not everyone is a dog lover.) Our dogs have always been our “kids.” We were blessed to have two dogs live to the ages of 14 and 15. Sadly they both went to heaven 9-months apart. After mourning our losses, my husband and I decided it was time to look for a puppy. (We live on a ranch and love Australian Shepherds and Border Collies.) Boy, has purchasing a puppy changed compared to 14 years ago. And dare I say, raising a puppy is much harder when you’re 14 years older!
The first advertisement I came across described this Shepherd puppy as “biddable.” I had to look the word up. It means “willing to do what is asked; obedient; a desire to please.” I thought, that should be a Christianese word if I ever heard one.
One of the character traits of God made evident throughout the Old Testament is His justice. Because God is just, He couldn’t allow His rebellious people to claim the Promised Land (see Numbers 13 and 14). Thankfully, for us, faith in Jesus alone is enough to satisfy God’s wrath against our sin. But God still expects obedience from His children—to be “biddable.” In this culture we seem to have a disdain for the words “obey” and “submit,” don’t we?
Why is obedience to God important?
It proves our love for Him. 1 John 5:3-4 states, “Loving God means doing what he tells us to do, and really, that isn’t hard at all; for every child of God can obey him, defeating sin and evil pleasure by trusting Christ to help him” (TLB). Obedience demonstrates our faithfulness to Him. It glorifies Him in our worlds, and opens avenues of blessings for us. Jesus said, “Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them” (John 13:17, NIV).
Is obedience easy? No. It’s impossible to be obedient in our own strength. This is why He gives us the empowerment of the Holy Spirit once we trust in Jesus as our Lord.
If I asked those close to you if you are biddable, how would they answer?
