Day 21

Obedience leads to knowledge.

‘On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!”’ (John 20:19)

Jesus had repeatedly forewarned His disciples that He would be crucified, buried and raised from the dead, but none of them took it seriously. Following the crucifixion they had hidden behind locked doors for fear, thinking they would be hunted down next.

Two women reported to them the empty tomb but it seemed to them to be like an idle tale. It was after Jesus appeared to the disciples Himself that their fear began to slowly evaporate – but it was onlyslowly. When Jesus met the disciples some time later in Galilee, ‘they worshipped him, but some doubted’ (Matthew 28:17). Don’t wait for all your doubts to disappear before you move on with Jesus. He still commissioned these disciples and told them to go into ‘all the world and preach the gospel’ even though some of them were full of doubts (Mark 16:15). The best way to deal with doubt is by obedience and in doing His will we will find Him to be true. Jesus said, ‘Anyone who chooses to do the will of God will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own’ (John 7:17). We would prefer the reverse order of that: find out the will of God first and then do it. Yet, we are told to do the will of God, and then we will know it. Obeying what we know now leads us to discover what we do not yet know.

Are you doing what you already know or is your obedience subject to knowing more than God has yet shown you?