Today I am happy to welcome my sister Norma Tochijara to this series on Faithful Obedience. I can attest that she is a woman who has striven in all things and through all things to be a faithful and obedient child of God.

“Not to us, Lord, not to us but to your name be the glory, because of your love and faithfulness.” Psalm 115:1

There have been many situations in my life where my faith has been tested as well as my obedience. I can think of the big events like the death of my baby girl at birth, certain difficulties in my marriage, and the daily prayers of supplication for my loved ones. Many times I have felt that the wait is too long and the temptation to lose hope, to be discouraged, and to look at the immediate circumstances instead of looking to Him resting on Him has been real.

How does practical obedience looks like in the midst of all these? How do we respond in faithful obedience when we are going through difficult situations and our thoughts overwhelm us?

We look to Christ!

That is our hope. We look to Christ and not to ourselves!

I have failed to pray when I have been at my lowest points, but others were praying for me -that I would look up to Christ. Many times I lost my temper trying to ‘drill sense’ into my loved ones, and yet it was Christ who brought me to repentance.  I have been slow to learn, yet Christ has not been slow to teach me. I have been unfaithful, but He has always been faithful.

It is all Christ, dear reader!

It is all HIM! Look at Him!

I often think of the day when I will hear the words: “My good and faithful servant, come into your rest,” and I know it is because of Christ’s finished work that I will be called faithful, that I will be able to stand looking at Him.

Oh, what a blessed promise that is!

Do you see it?

Do you believe it?

If you look up to Christ, your troubles and hurts will bring you down at the feet of the cross. A life of supplication for mercy, a praying life soaked with many tears, asking the Lord to haste his answer and to increase your faith will be yours. Maybe you feel like a weary traveler, like one who seeks for a place of rest from her troubles. Friend, let me tell you, the rest is coming! Keep on walking. Keep persevering. Keep looking up to Christ! Believe Him! Believe His Word! We will enter into His rest, because rest has been promised to those who wait on Him. Do not lose sight of Jesus Christ. Keep looking up to Him!

I read in His Holy Word how all that came to Jesus were healed. He said: “Live!” And the dead rose from the dead, the lepers were healed, the blind saw. And so I pray, “Lord, please say the word, just say the word, and my loved one will live!” And then, in faithful obedience, I keep looking up and patiently wait.

We wait and we keep praying, crying, not as those without hope, but as those who look up to Christ, the author and finisher of our faith, the anchor of our hope.

We also manifest our faithful obedience to God by learning contentment with His will for us. Because we know that He does that which is best for us in every situation we are in, we can persevere knowing that in all circumstances we are being sanctified, made more like Christ. And isn’t that our goal? To be more like Christ? So let’s look up to Christ more and more.

By looking up to Christ and clinging to Him, we imitate Job, who he did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing even in the hardest trials (Job 1:22). God’s response to Job’s sufferings was not an explanation or a cheering voice in the background. It was God saying, “That you may know ME”.

Our faithful obedience to God, then, is not based on how much we understand or not about our trials or our sufferings, but on the character of God. When we look up to Christ we can see how God is all powerful, all sovereign, and all good. And so our absolute submission to His holy will, in faithful obedience, becomes the proper response of our hearts to Him.

So pray and look up to Christ, dear Reader. Pray and look up to Christ when you do not feel like it. Pray and look up to Christ like the man who insistently asks for bread until the owner of the house gets tired of him and gives him what he wants. Pray and look up to Christ even when it feels that you are alone in the room. Pray and look up to Christ in private. Pray and look up to Christ without ceasing (and if you fall, just start again and again as many times as are necessary). He hears our prayers!

‘As a Father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him” Ps.103:13

He will have compassion on us! What a promise!

Let us look up to Christ!

Norma