There’s that feeling again. It’s a combination of nausea and anxiety all at the same time. The one I always get when I actually muster enough courage up to step out into the impossible. You know it, don’t you? It’s laced with invisible darts of “you can’t do this” and “who do you think you are” until your heart is thumping so loudly in your chest that you can’t hear anything else. And then you can’t even remember what God told you to do in the first place and did you just make it all up? You end up a wreck of emotions and an explosion of insecurity until you find yourself in a heap of soppy ashes on the floor, stuffing your face with chocolate chip cookies and your blankie wrapped around you. Maybe you don’t do this, but I do. And I haven’t even stepped out yet! For crying out loud, save the drama until after the action.
I think I’m not the only one that faces this dilemma. It’s easy to talk about our goals and dreams- future tense- like “someday I’m gonna…..” but it’s a whole other thing when you just jump off of a cliff head first into them. You find out real quick what you REALLY believe deep down. For instance, Do you really believe God is good? Don’t answer that when your calendar is full of paying appointments or your 9-5 is super comfy. No answer that question when you don’t know how you are going to make it financially next moth if God doesn’t perform a miracle. Answer it when you can’t get a paying client to save your life. And I hope your answer is still yes, God is good.
There is never a good time to obey God, but there is a right time. And the right time is when you hear it. Not 2 weeks later, 5 months down the road or 10 years later. We have to remember that obedience yields blessing. It may not be immediate blessing, but it sets things in motion so that a blessing is on its way to us. How do I know that?? I know that because it is the nature of God to bless us:
But without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists and the He rewards those who earnestly seek Him. Hebrews 11:6
He rewards those that seek Him. Obedience is a form of deep reverence and respect for God and I believe it is done out of our pursuit of Him. We obey Him because we want to have a nearness to Him, right? We want to be close to Him. As we obey, we position our hearts and minds in alignment with Him and His will and He rewards that.
I don’t know what seemingly difficult thing that God may be asking of you right now, and honestly the specifics don’t matter. All it takes is that first step, that willingness to obey. You don’t have to map it all out and know exactly where the next step will lead, and the step after that. Honestly, you probably won’t even know where you’re going half the time, but you will feel the sprit leading you one way or another, dropping instructions or intuition into your heart. Go with it. Don’t constantly demand a GPS update from God and rob yourself of the joy of just trusting Him like a child. Does it drive you insane when you are on a long trip and your child asks you 100 times where you are, and how much longer??? Don’t do the same thing to the Lord. Just trust Him and know that wherever He is taking you, it will be great. And that your obedience will yield something spectacular.
I’m reminded of Abraham. The Bible says that God called him away from his home and family, and led him to a place he did not know. He circled that land for years, pitching tents and putting up altars of worship. He never even knew what the heck he was doing, just going around the edge of what would become the promised land later on. Talk about having no instructions or description of what God was up to. But Abraham did it. He obeyed and eventually he fathered the nation of Israel, and well you know the rest.
Who knows what God could be doing in your life and subsequently, the lives of others around you. Your obedience could totally impact the world you live in, the people you love and a whole host of others that could benefit from your willingness to just do what God tells you to.
It ain’t that hard ya’ll. Just do what God tells you to do, when he tells you. Do it with the full assurance that all of Heaven is cheering you on, Jesus is on your side and angels are fighting with you. Because that’s the absolute truth.
