Walking in Unreserved Obedience

Introduction

You may know the word "iyaiyaki," the "no-no" phase in two- and three-year-olds. A child no one has told anything suddenly starts answering "no" to everything, just to avoid giving in. And we laugh a little, because we recognize ourselves in it. That resistance never really goes away with age. It stays buried, and it resurfaces whenever someone (a traffic officer, a coworker, a brother or sister in the faith, God himself) asks you to stop, to yield, to follow. This message from the Tokyo Christ Church, the third in a series on Deuteronomy, goes to the heart of that tension. The title is simple: walking in unreserved obedience. And Deuteronomy answers a very specific question: what does God call you to when you are in scarcity, and what does he call you to when you are in abundance?

The outline of this message

1. Two motivations that fall short

Why obey God? Not because you're forced to, and not because you fear punishment. If your only reason for obeying is fear of what will happen if you don't, your obedience won't go far. That is not the motivation God is looking for.

2. The real motivation: loving God

"If you love me, you will keep my commandments" (John 14:15). In Deuteronomy, loving God and obeying God always go together. Obeying is the concrete way of saying "I love you" to the one who loved you first. It's the only motivation that lasts, because it doesn't depend on your circumstances, it depends on the love you've received.

3. The result of obedience: life

"You shall walk in all the way that the LORD your God has commanded you, that you may live, and that it may go well with you, and that you may live long in the land that you shall possess" (Deuteronomy 5:33). God commands because he wants to bless. The law is not a chain, it's a path. The real spiritual battle for the people of Israel was not clearing out the nations they would meet in Canaan, it was knowing how they would live once settled there, surrounded by idols and teachings that would color their everyday life. The only possible safeguard: walking in unreserved obedience.

4. The obedience God is really looking for

Obeying when it pays off is easy. Obeying when you're forced to is easy. Obeying because there's a penalty is easy. But that kind of obedience is centered on you. The obedience God is looking for is the kind that holds up when there's no visible reward, when the situation gets worse, when disobeying wouldn't bring any punishment at all. That's where it becomes clear whether you truly trust God.

5. First ground: obedience in scarcity

"And you shall remember the whole way that the LORD your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart... And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna... that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD" (Deuteronomy 8:2-3).

God deliberately led his people into a place of lack. Lack is not an accident: it's a school. It brings to the surface what you truly lean on. Israel complained as soon as its needs weren't being met, because its real trust rested on bread, not on God. The same is true for you: when you're in need, you discover yourself. And often, you discover that you turn to something other than God to fill yourself.

6. Jesus, perfectly obedient in scarcity

Jesus, in the wilderness, fasted forty days. At the edge of starvation, Satan told him, "Command these stones to become loaves of bread." Jesus refused. He would not meet his need through a path of disobedience. He quotes that very verse from Deuteronomy word for word: "Man shall not live by bread alone." He shows, in his own body, that faithfulness to the word is worth more than immediate satisfaction.

7. What are your "disobedient loaves of bread"?

When you're in need (materially, emotionally, spiritually), what do you really turn to? For some, it's proving your worth through social success. For others, it's filling loneliness, emptiness, the feeling of being unloved, through other people's words, through a relationship. For others still, it's making up for an impoverished spiritual life by staying busy, serving more. Or holding on to what God asks you to give back when money is tight. Or drowning a vague sense of lack in entertainment, television, social media, excess. These are all loaves of bread. They feed you for an evening and leave you hungry the next day.

8. A testimony of fragility

The preacher shares his own journey. His wife collapsed during a ministry retreat at Lake Yamanaka and was taken by ambulance to the hospital for exhaustion. For three years now, with two young sons, he has been discovering that what he leans on is not God but his own strength, his own effort, his pride in always wanting to appear "on top of things." Some nights he weeps before God: "I can't do this anymore." And it's there, in that confession, that God answers: "It's when you can no longer speak that I will speak through you." Obedience in scarcity begins with trusting that God is a God who wants to bless. It comes through honesty before him.

9. Second ground: obedience in abundance

"And when you eat and are full, and build good houses and live in them, and when your herds and flocks multiply, and your silver and gold is multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied, then take care lest your heart be lifted up, and you forget the LORD your God... You shall remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth" (Deuteronomy 8:12-18).

This is the exact opposite of the first ground, and it's even more treacherous. Apparently there are Christians who pray before every meal and pray again afterward, once they're full, just to say thank you. That's very biblical. But try it for two weeks: you'll see how quickly being full makes you forget gratitude.

10. How the trap works

First comes prosperity. Then the illusion: "I built all this myself, I don't need God." Then forgetting: forgetting how enslaved you once were before God set you free. Then pride: "What I have, I deserve." And little by little, in a heart now empty of God, something else moves in: materialism, social success, money, sometimes even yourself as an idol. And bit by bit, your walk with God grows lukewarm: "Well, I still do the basics, that's enough." No. It is not enough.

11. A heart that gives instead of holding back

The preacher tells two stories. A young married man, a new father with a good job, finally comes to the Wednesday evening devotion meeting he had longed for; his wife encouraged him because she could see how much his spiritual state needed that time. Then a couple, with very little free time, invites an isolated brother over on a Saturday evening for dinner and a movie, hosts their home group on Sunday, and takes a day trip to Mount Fuji on the Monday holiday with a sister who is soon moving abroad. Someone asks them, "Aren't you exhausted?" They laugh and answer, "This is our joy. When we were young, others welcomed us like this. Now it's our turn to give." This isn't a call to do more. It's a call to a heart that gives back, in abundance, what it first received.

12. The final promise

"For if you will be careful to do all this commandment that I command you to do, loving the LORD your God, walking in all his ways, and holding fast to him, then the LORD will drive out all these nations before you... you shall dispossess nations greater and mightier than you" (Deuteronomy 11:22-23). That sums up what God expects: to love, to walk, to hold fast. And here is the promise: when you walk this way, God gives you victory over enemies too big for you. You will fail sometimes. That's alright. What matters is who you turn back to after every fall.

Key takeaways

• Obeying is loving. It's the concrete way of responding to God's love. Any other motivation eventually wears out.
• Scarcity reveals what you truly lean on. When what you were counting on is taken away, you see what was really holding you up. Often, it wasn't God.
• Man does not live by bread alone. Fill your lack by turning to the word, not to a disobedient loaf of bread that will leave you emptier.
• Abundance is a trap when it makes you forget. Prosperity, pride, forgetting, idols: the mechanism is ancient and it still works.
• Your heart shows in what you give. What you do with your time, your money, your home, and the gifts you've received says what you really think of God.
• Walk, love, hold fast. Three verbs from Deuteronomy. A promise of victory attached, not because you are strong, but because God is.

Personal application

Take a few minutes before closing this article. These questions are meant to be answered honestly, not quickly.

1. What is my real motivation for obeying God today: fear, habit, or the love I've received from him?
2. In what area am I currently in scarcity, material, emotional, relational, spiritual? What do I really turn to in order to fill it?
3. Is there a specific "disobedient loaf of bread" in my life, a way of filling myself that bypasses God? Am I willing to name it before him?
4. When I am full, satisfied, at ease, do I remember God, or do I forget him even faster than when I'm in need?
5. What God has given me (time, money, home, talents, relationships), do I put it at his disposal, or do I keep it for my own satisfaction alone?

Verses cited

• Deuteronomy 5:33
• Deuteronomy 8:2-3
• Deuteronomy 8:4
• Deuteronomy 8:12-18
• Deuteronomy 11:22-23
• Matthew 4:1-4
• John 14:15

FAQ

Why does Deuteronomy insist so much on obedience?
Because Moses is speaking to a people about to enter a land where everything will be given to them: houses already built, vineyards already planted, fertile land. The danger isn't ahead of them, it's within them. The real battle isn't conquering Canaan, it's staying faithful there. Obedience isn't a constraint, it's the path that protects the relationship with God when everything is going well.

Does God really send lack to test me?
Deuteronomy 8 clearly says that God humbled his people to reveal what was in their heart. This isn't cruelty, it's discipleship. Lack isn't always sent directly by God, but God makes use of it. He uses it to show you what you were truly leaning on, and to teach you again that he is enough.

Is abundance a bad thing?
No. God blesses, and he wants you to enjoy his blessing. It isn't wealth that's harmful, it's the forgetting that often comes with it: "I did this myself, I don't need God anymore." Abundance is a test just as demanding as scarcity, sometimes more so, because it lulls you to sleep instead of making you cry out.