My brother and I were roommates in college. This surprised our parents, because my brother and I had fought so much when we were younger that our parents sometimes wondered if we would live to grow up–much less ever become good friends! But the miracle finally happened, and we shared the same room by choice.

One Saturday night my brother was restless. It was the middle of the winter–the terrible kind of winter they have in southern California–fog! It was an ideal night for staying indoors, propping your feet up on the desk, and relaxing with a good book.

My brother, however, decided to take a walk instead. In fact, he decided to walk to Glendale, seventy-five miles away!

This was not a rational decision! Under normal circumstances, the kind thing to do would have been to tie him up somewhere until sanity returned. But my brother had a fiancée in Glendale. He was in love. And I knew about his disease! So not only did I not try to stop him, I even went so far as to consider his actions excusable!

We have noticed so far in this section that obedience is a gift. We have seen how true obedience comes from the inside out, not the outside in. We have understood that genuine obedience is natural and spontaneous. Now we’re going to go even one step farther: If you are experiencing genuine obedience, you would have to try harder not to obey than you would to obey.

If you have trouble with that premise, remember my brother walking to Glendale! He was motivated by the most powerful force in the world, the power of love. In spite of the circumstances, in spite of the obstacles, in spite of the distance, it would have been much harder for him to stay in his dormitory room than to walk the seventy-five miles. Walking to Glendale was easy compared to sitting with his feet on the desk, reading a good book. Hitchhiking in the fog was easy compared to staying indoors. Going to Glendale was the natural and spontaneous thing for him to do.

Sometimes people become afraid that when we talk about natural and spontaneous obedience, we are talking about effortless obedience. Is there effort involved in obeying God? Sure there is! Was there effort involved for my brother to walk to Glendale? Of course! But the crucial issue is: Wherein lies the greater effort?

If it is harder for you to obey God than to follow your own impulses, then you are not experiencing natural obedience yet. If it would be harder for you to disobey, because your own im-pulse is to obey God, then you can know that God is working in you, to will and do of His good pleasure.

In Psalm 40:8, David described natural obedience when he said,

“I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart.”

“Looking unto Jesus we obtain brighter and more distinct views of God, and by beholding we become changed. Goodness, love for our fellow men, becomes our natural instinct.” – Christ’s Object Lessons, p. 355.

If it is your natural instinct to obey, if God’s law is within your heart and you find delight in doing His will, then you would have to try harder to disobey than to obey.

That doesn’t mean that obedience is always easy. It is not always easy to follow your natural instincts! Take the example of a mother caring for her child. Her natural instincts lead her to place the needs of the child above her own needs. Her natural instincts will lead her to change the baby’s diapers, even though I can assure you from personal experience that changing diapers is not always a pleasant task!

Her natural instincts will cause her to get up in the middle of the night to feed and care for her baby when she would really be much more comfortable asleep in bed. Is caring for a baby always easy? No, but it is the natural thing for a mother or father who loves. For the one who is controlled by God, obedience may not always be easy. But it is always easiest!