All teachers know that classroom management, aka student obedience, is the key to a successful learning experience. Obedience also is essential to successful transformation in our adversity. Often, however, we make our desert or Land Between time much more difficult than it needs to be because we aren’t obedient to God. The Children of Israel spent 40 years in the wilderness because complaint was their standard operating procedure. In The Peace God Promises, Ann Spangler makes this comparison: ” Obedience is like gasoline that powers an engine, helping it go faster. Rather than being a word we resist, it can become a word we cherish. For the Christian, as Eugene Peterson points out, obedience is meant to be ‘a hopeful race towards God’s promises.’ It is the key to living a life of peace.”
