Obedience

Do you ever get tired of doing the right thing?  I do.  Sometimes I just have the fleshly thoughts that I wish someone would "get theirs."  I quit playing judge and jury about 13 years ago out of sheer fatigue.  I realized that God was much better at that than I was, and I wasn't fulfilling my role as a believer to love God and love people.  But still, there are times in my life, past and present, that I did the right thing for the sake of doing the right thing.  I realize this is the lowest level of motivation for obedience; nonetheless, it can produce good results and stave off regret.  For instance, my job requires me to have morning duties.  I hate morning duties.  It messes up my morning, I don't feel prepared for my students when they arrive and I feel some of the duties are unnecessary.  But I do them.  And I smile (or try to).  This is definitely the lowest level of obedience for me.  It is simply a requirement set out by my administration, so I do it.  It also has benefits.  I do not get written up on my job.  I am seen as a dependable employee.  I am doing the right thing.  There are lots of times when I obey simply for the sake of obedience or for avoiding a non-favorable consequence.  However, as we grow, we must ramp up the motivation for obedience.  Forsaking the spiritual milk and get some meat on our plates.   In contrast to obeying for the sake of obeying, is obeying out of love.  Love is the highest form of motivation for obedience.  When we obey out of love, the focus is off of ourselves and put on the other person whom we are obeying.  It becomes selfless.   Philippians 2:8 "And after He had appeared in human form, He abased and humbled Himself and carried His obedience to the extreme of death, even the death of the cross!"  I love how the Amplified Bible put the exclamation point there.  It's like the, "Wow, can you believe THAT?"  So I guess the challenge for me is to keep that obedience at a selfless level with Christ, once again, as our perfect example, and the Holy Spirit empowering us, we can live this love-motivated, selfless life.