There is a vast difference between “mere obedience” as Oswald Chambers called it and obedience from the heart. The very reason Jesus came and lived a sinless life, died on the cross taking away our sin and rising from the grave is so that we would be transformed people. The Scriptures describe this transformation is 2 Corinthians 5:15, "and He died for all, that they who live should no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf." The transformation is not just one of forgiveness of our sins (which is amazing), but that we would now have planted within us His very nature and therefore the desire to want our lives to point to Him. To live for Him in grateful obedience and not for ourselves cannot be produced by religious effort or trying hard for God, or by ritualistic formulas, but by having an innermost desire to “live for Him”

The Psalmist expressed this truth in Psalm 40:8, I delight to do Your will, O my God; Your Law is within my heart." 

Let’s ask Him to convince us of this truth and to mature us in our willingness to gratefully walk in obedience in all areas of our lives for His glory and our good.