What’s the Cost? Obedience
What’s the Cost? Obedience
When Alexander the Great was asked how he conquered the world, he replied, “I acted time after time without delay.”
Charles Spurgeon, the great Baptist preacher of England, said, “We often make a mistake when we dilly-dally around when God asks us to do what is a known Christian impression. Why do we waste God’s time and our time when what is our Christian duty to do, we ought to do?”
And look at Abraham, the Old Testament patriarch. God said to him, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you.” And what was his response?
So Abram left, as the LORD had told him (Genesis 12:4).
Our sense of urgency about doing God’s will probably looks small in light of those examples. All too often, when God tells us to get up and do something, we find it difficult to crank our engine. We shuffle our feet and rationalize that we’re not quite certain we heard God correctly. We check and double-check the inward call to obey so many times that, before you know it, we’ve reasoned away the command to obey God. We’re certainly not like Isaiah, who heard the voice of the Lord, jumped up and exclaimed, “Here I am, Lord. Send me!”
Are we willing, like Abraham, to exchange the known present for the unknown future?
Are we willing to face the risks of obeying God?
Do we respond immediately?
Maybe we would if we understood that obedience means blessing. God always keeps His Word, and when we live in obedience to that Word, our lives will be blessed. Oh sure, there will be cost—even pain.
God told Paul to go to Macedonia and in obedience he did. And sure enough, it was there in Philippi that Paul was imprisoned.
God told Peter to preach the gospel and in obedience he did. Yet Peter, at the end of his journey, was crucified upside down.
Now, obedience won’t always cost us our lives; but it may cost us our comfort, some popularity, position, or prestige. Our friend Abraham gave up his extended family, job, possessions, future security, and even his country.
He said to God, “I will obey.” God said, “I will bless you.” And He did.
You and I simply don’t have time to shuffle our feet and display a “ho-hum” attitude about obeying God. If your get-up-and-go has got up and went where it concerns obedience, then go get it.
That may very well be your first step today toward obeying God’s call.