Obedience and Surrender

When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.” So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called my son.” – Matthew 2:13-15

As we prepare to celebrate Christmas in the coming days, we are going to learn today about what happens when we follow Jesus wherever He wants us to go. When you surrender to God’s call, you are under God’s care. We know from reading Scripture that Joseph, Jesus’ earthly father, never had it easy. God didn’t promise Joseph a rose garden. There was a high price he paid to be the father of Jesus.

So as we read his story, we learn three things that were true of Joseph all of his life that are true about you and me when we simply surrender to the will of God in our lives. We’re going to look at the first truth today, and then we’ll look at two more tomorrow.

The first truth we need to learn is that we are guided by the providence of God. Following God is not always easy. The flight is not always smooth. There is simply no easy, comfortable, velvet-lined highway to follow Jesus. If you want to live an easy, comfortable, safe life, whatever you do, don’t surrender to the Lord, because sometimes your plans will be disrupted. Sometimes your hopes will be discarded. Your expectations will be disappointed.

But the good news is that Jesus never baits and switches. He never over-promises and under-delivers. Jesus never said it was easy to follow Him. It costs to serve Jesus. But it also pays to serve Jesus, and it always pays more than it costs.

No matter what is going on in the world around you, no matter what it’s costing you to follow Jesus, everything is going according to plan. What we learn from Joseph is that when you surrender to God’s call, you are under God’s care. You are guided by the providence of God. Joseph was provided for and cared for throughout his life because he chose to obey and surrender to the Lord. And the same will be true for us when we make the same choices.

Dear Lord, thank you for Joseph’s example of obedience and surrender. Help me to have the boldness and faithfulness to obey and surrender the way Joseph did. In Jesus’ name, amen.