Praise & Obedience

Today’s Reading: Matthew 21:1-11

Two things stuck out to me as I read these verses: obedience and praise. And of course I ask myself…am I being completely obedient and am I praising?

The two disciples were obedient because they did just as Jesus asked with no questions---even to a request that may seemed very odd at the time. I mean what would you think if Jesus asked you to go into this town and get a donkey and her colt. Am I that willing? Am I willing to forget my plans for the day and follow his calling? Am I willing to be different and do things that people may question? Am I willing to simply say alright Father, what ever you ask of me? I so desire to say yes to all the questions that I just posed, however, I have to admit, sometimes I miss the mark. Sometimes I am so busy that I don’t tune in to what God is asking me to do. Sometimes, just to be frank, I don’t understand what God is doing and why he is asking me to do something and I just don’t do it---it’s hard to admit that but what good will it do me or you to act like I do everything that God asks me to do? Sometimes, I am just tired and I fail to follow through with his direction. But sometimes, I do follow his calling and when I do he always, always blesses me in some way that is far greater than I could ever imagine. With everything that I do right for him, he opens up my heart, mind, and soul a little more and fills me with a bit more of his love than I had previously.

We have read about so many people, so many crowds, and all of them seeking something from Jesus, whether it be salvation or healing there were many, many cries amongst the people asking for Jesus’ help. Yet at this moment as the crowds surrounded Jesus no one was crying out for anything from Jesus, in fact, it was quite the opposite. The crowds of people were shouting praises to our King…“Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” (vs. 9) They were simply praising Jesus for who he was. These crowds spread their cloaks or laid branches on the road preparing the way for him. To me this is saying I am laying everything out for you Jesus, I lay everything down before you and I only want to praise you---worship you! Am I praising Jesus like this? So many times I go to him for an answer, so many times I seek him for guidance or comfort, and while all this is great, sometimes (many times) I need to just praise him---just praise him because he is Jesus! I could make a list a mile long of all the things he has done for me and how he deserves all my praise for those blessings, but I tend to get caught up in praising him for each blessing and forget just to praise him and worship him because he is Hosanna in the highest. I think about a story in the old testament about a group of people that were seeking God diligently to bring them out of a terrible situation and before anything changed, before one prayer was answered this large group of people began to sing and praise God because he was God. Isn’t this what we should be doing?