1 Samuel 15:22 - "And Samuel said, Hath the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams."

Have you ever had something in your heart that you know you were supposed to do, but you tried to substitute anything and everything else instead of doing what the Lord has told you to do?

My wife and I were in a challenging situation a number of years ago with someone very close to us. We needed to make a very difficult decision for the good of everyone involved. To be totally candid, I would have rather done anything else than what God said to do, but thankfully we followed through with complete obedience.

There is something rarely taught in connection with the grace of God…it's called obeying the voice of God…period. A huge key to accessing what grace has already supplied for us is our obedience to what God has told us to do. And as you have probably already found out, many times it's inconvenient or uncomfortable.

In 1 Samuel 15:3 God gave Saul specific instructions, through the prophet Samuel, to completely destroy all of God's enemies. But Saul just wouldn't do it, he wouldn't obey God. Yet, in 1Samuel 15: 20 Saul said , "I have obeyed the voice of the Lord…"

Here's my question to you, have you ever talked yourself into incomplete obedience? How aboutpartial obedience? A more convenient obedience?

In 1 Samuel 15:22, Samuel gets right to the point. He asked Saul, does all of your doing or good works substitute for what God told you to do?

The answer: there is no substitute for complete obedience, "to obey is better than _____ ". Fill in the blank . Always remember, your obedience to what God is saying for you to do is going to access God's best for you!