It is impossible for one to truly serve God if his heart does not obey Him. It really doesn't matter how active we may be in religious activities. What matters is how OBEDIENT we are to Him, for it is our obedience and the one we obey that determines the one we serve in reality. We need to draw near to God, so that He draw near to us. We cannot serve Him from distance, without knowing Him. We can serve only the one we obey and to whom we subject ourselves.
The same mind that was in Christ Jesus should also be in us. What was this mind? It was the mind of obedience; the mind that, obeying God, didn’t deny even the death of the cross is the command. The mind of Jesus Christ, the mind of obedience, was «NOT AS I WILL, BUT AS YOU WILL». This is the mind that the Word of God tells us to have. Not as we will, but as God wills. It is easy to be obedient when everything is going our way. When God gives us what our heart desires, we receive it with great gladness. However, what do we do when this does not happen? How do we react when the plans of the Lord seem to divert from our own plans? Here is the difference between the obedient and the disobedient. In happiness, they both will react the same. It is not happiness that causes the people of the second category of the parable of the good sewer to fall. In contrast, as Jesus said, «they receive the Word WITH JOY» (Luke 8:13). Yet, this doesn't last. In the first tribulation, they fall away (Matthew 13:21, Luke 8:13). When a choice of the Lord is not what he would like, the disobedient will run away, while the obedient will stay, saying: «if it is possible ..... nevertheless, not as I will but as you will».
All that God wants from us is to do justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with Him. To humble ourselves under His mighty hand so that He may exalt us in due time (I Peter 5:6). Disobedience, either in the form of doing what the Lord has not said or not doing what the Lord has said, is action separately from God. It doesn't matter what we do, or the intentions we may have. What matters are whether what is done comes out of obedience to Him.
