Today's Devotional

October 30, 2002

Subject:  Desire + Obedience = Joy 

Luke 19:5-6 - "And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up, and saw him, and said unto him, Zacchaeus, make haste, and come down; for today I must abide at thy house.  And he made haste, and came down, and received him joyfully."

Yesterday in verse 4 we identified the desire that Zacchaeus had to see Jesus.  He wanted to see Him so badly that he went through the effort of scaling a tree to get a better view.  Moral:  Many want to see Jesus, but few climb trees to do it.  That means that  a lot of people can say that they have the desire, but what does the desire lead you to do?  Firstly, it should lead you to obey Jesus.  In these two simple verses, you get Zacchaeus, who is known as a sinner, obeying the words of Christ to a tee.  The result of that direct obedience, which was preceded by his desire, is the joyous occasion of having Jesus abide at his house.

I truly desire to be a great man of God and do great service for Him.  However, my ability to do that is limited by my obedience to His commands.  I will never be any better Christian than my willingness to obey everything that Christ says to me.  I can have the greatest ambition to do great things for God, but if I don't obey Him in any area, I will never reach the level of joy that can be attained from complete and total obedience.

Do you desire to be godly?  Obedience is the key that unlocks the door to God's blessings and joy unspeakable.

Carlen