What Does God Expect From Me?

A question that often gets pondered is, “What does God expect of me?” Many people ask, struggle, discuss, debate or argue this question. It’s a big question because the answer has a lot to do with how one will view their relationship with Abba Father.

Now with that said, my experience is that many confuse religion (man’s idea of God’s expectations) with relationship. For example, many people think God expects them to be good. And then even though the Bible says that there is no one righteous, not even one, we get on those performance treadmills and bear down doing what we’re told we’re supposed to do. After all, just like many have been told all their lives, God expects obedience and if you want to be in his good books you had better obey.

Out of the many troubling things I hear from hurting people who have been sucked in, chewed up & spit out by religious thinking, I do not believe there is anything quite as troubling as modern day teachings and beliefs on the subject of obedience. Many of us have been taught, and have grown up honestly believing that obedience is number one on the top ten list of things God desires from His people.

The very subject of obedience in the Christian context, reminds me of training my bird dogs. Well, not how I train but rather how some go about training their bird hunting dogs. The way it has been taught makes me envision God standing over me with a remote that operates a shock collar that’s around my neck that he will not hesitate to use if I don't respond to His commands. Now in fairness, it’s not quite that severe because he’ll only use these extreme measures if the rolled up newspaper that’s ready to pop me doesn’t keep me in line.

Now what I find really weird is the number of Christians that claim to be comfortable with these twisted descriptions of obedience. When describing the kind of relationship they believe God desires you’ll hear phrases like the "breaking of one's spirit," as if they were a horse or a dog. It's as though people have found some freaky comfort in being controlled and manipulated because whoever delights in these things the most, is considered "spiritual."

A focus on obedience is only necessary if someone's relationship with an Abba Father has never been established in the first place. When there is a heart connection with the One who indwells us the focus is not on obedience. Once that is established, obedience and doing what you are supposed to do is never an issue. You don't have to tell a squirrel to collect nuts for the winter. He does it because he has a squirrel's heart. The same is true for children of Abba Father. We have his Spirit living inside of us.

In this journey of learning how to live loved I have genuinely come to a relaxed place. It's a place where I can say that it is truly my belief that the "obedience theology" separates us from that wonderful truth that we are loved. It puts the spotlight on the outcomes of love, rather than the heart of love.

In fact if obedience is truly as important to God as it seems most have been taught, I really don’t think I would be interested in Him. It's not that I have a problem with obedience as much as I have become someone who is generally turned off by people who need to be obeyed. There is a, "do it or else...." feeling in the air with people like this.

Those who are living loved do not think in terms of obedience. They don't need too. They naturally do the things that are on their Father's heart. This is so because they are one with Him. Relationship always trumps obedience and that’s why it's not obedience that Abba Father desires most; it's a heart connection with those he genuinely loves.