Parents? I only obey God!
“For it is better to suffer for doing good if that should be God's will, than for doing evil.”
1 Peter 3:17 ESV I was mind blown today while reading a Bible Plan titled “ Knowing God’s Will”. I have spent most of my growing stage of life thinking that God’s will over me is to serve Him full time in church ministries, or to travel the world for the Gospel, or to be a prayer warrior in a private room all day and night for the needs of others.
I had always thought that to align myself according to His will means to fight anyone who is against my “passion” to walk into church ministries like worship team or children ministry etc. That I must “fight the good fight of faith” to show myself ‘worthy’ or ‘hungry’ to serve God. At that time, I know ( kind of ) that it should not be wrong to want to serve God!
Because of that, it would lead to actions of me not honouring my parents, being disobedient to their commands and rules. Why? Because I thought, if they are stopping me from doing God’s work, then I should not honour them because “sons will go against fathers, daughters will go against mothers” for the sake of Jesus, right? Matthew 10:35
I am now at a place where God teaches me how to honour the people He had placed in my life. Not only that, He is teaching me the meaning of submission under my parent’s authority.
Although I am now an adult, my parents are still my parents. Even if there are times they would do things that I do not agree on, I should not be annoyed or angry or disrespect them for it. I learn to be quiet, listen, and see how they see. And with my new found stance of honouring my parents, I will share what I know to help them change their perspective or habits with love and respect.
Honouring your parents is one of the many WRITTEN wills of God for us, that we tend to ignore. Why do we ignore them? Because following the desires of our heart is so much nicer than submitting ourselves under authority. See, the desires of our heart may look like it’s lifting God up, but if in the lifting of God’s name leads you to not love people that are close to you, what is the point of glorifying His name?
If you are having trouble following the written Ten Commandments of God but yet you are pursuing the ‘great calling’ with full force, it still means you’re disobeying His will. It does not matter if you are leading a worship team in the church when you do not honour your parents, it is still disobedience.
So in the end, to obey your annoying parents, who are not in trend and ‘does not understand’ your calling may feel like it is suffocating you, it is better to suffer in doing good, in obeying and honouring them than to do evil in His eyes, that is to ignore His written will for us. Do not believe me but believe in His word when He says He will bless you when you honour your parents. Exodus 20:12, Deuteronomy 5:16.
When you have this simple understanding of His written will, whatever else you pursue, if it is according to God’s will, will fall in the right place.