I once knew a man who embezzled money from church and yet was very active in church. As a matter of fact, he was one the most active and generously giving person to the church. And because of his involvement in all facets of services to the church, no one really questioned his lifestyle. I’m sure in his mind he thought, “I’m doing so much for the Lord. I’m sure the Lord will overlook that small flaw.”

So often, we will substitute our obedience to the Lord for our service to the Lord. By serving God and even sacrificing greatly to the Lord, we feel we have done our duty and God will overlook our sin. However, there is this verse: “To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams.” 1 Sam 15:22

Samuel said this to King Saul when he didn’t obey the Lord completely by killing everything of the enemy, but kept some animals for himself. It may have been that he kept some of them to sacrifice to the Lord as he claimed, but what God wanted was obedience rather than sacrifice. The Lord rejected Saul as king after this event.

Why is this a big deal? Didn’t Saul obey God mostly? Because partial obedience is no obedience at all. Partial obedience lets us choose what we will obey and what we will not. Which means, when it comes to what really matters to us, we will not. It’s easy to sacrifice parts of our lives that are not our ultimate, but when God asks for that which is our ultimate, we will decline. This only goes to show that we do not have complete trust in God. To God, it’s black and white. Either we fully and completely obey Him or we don’t obey at all. Partial trust is no trust at all. Partial trust in God is really trust in ourselves when it comes to things that really matter!

Heavy, isn’t it? But consider this: Wouldn’t you want your children to obey you whole-heartedly? Especially when he disagrees? What if he picked and chose what he will obey and what he will not? He will end up ruining his life… You know better, and you love him and that’s why you want Him to obey you.

God loves you. He died for you. He knows the very number of your hair. He made the very thing that you treasure so much! Obey Him completely for your sake.

PH