January 11th — WHAT MY OBEDIENCE TO GOD COSTS OTHER PEOPLE
January 11th.WHAT MY OBEDIENCE TO GOD COSTS OTHER PEOPLE
"They laid hold upon one Simon . . . and on him they laid the cross." Luke 23:2
If we obey God it is going to cost other people more than it costs us, and that is where the sting comes in. If we are in love with our Lord, obedience does not cost us anything, it is a delight, but it costs those who do not love Him a good deal. If we obey God it wil mean that other people's plans are upset, and they wil gibe us with it - "You cal this Christianity?" We can prevent the suffering; but if we are going to obey God, we must not prevent it, we must let the cost be paid.
Our human pride entrenches itself on this point, and we say - I wil never accept anything from anyone. We shal have to, or disobey God. We have no right to expect to be in any other relation than our Lord Himself was in (see Luke 8:2-3).
Stagnation in spiritual life comes when we say we wil bear the whole thing ourselves. We cannot. We are so involved in the universal purposes of God that immediately we obey God, others are affected. Are we going to remain loyal in our obedience to God and go through the humiliation of refusing to be independent, or are we going to take the other line and say - I wil not cost other people suffering? We can disobey God if we choose, and it wil bring immediate relief to the situation, but we shal be a grief to our Lord. Whereas if we obey God, He wil look after those who have been pressed into the consequences of our obedience. We have simply to obey and to leave al consequences with Him.
Beware of the inclination to dictate to God as to what you wil al ow to happen if you obey Him.