Obedience

Why is it so hard to be obedient?
When I was a child, it was easier.  I was either obedient or I would be in trouble.  Something was either right or it was wrong.  Not much gray area there.  But as I got older, the temptations were stronger, the gray area between right and wrong got bigger and obedience was a little bit tougher.  I wonder why…maybe it was because I wanted to fit in. Maybe it was because it was easier to go with the crowd than to take a stand.  Whatever the reasons were, the decisions were not based on biblical standards and they led to guilt and regret.   I do know this, when we choose to be obedient, we save ourselves from lots of heartache and set ourselves up to succeed and receive God’s blessings.

At the last workshop, I shared a personal story about learning to be obedient. My husband and I had bought a house that was priced at the very top of our budget.  It was a foreclosure and the bank wouldn’t budge on the price.  We bought the house, moved in and a month later Kevin lost his job.  The house literally became a noose around our necks.  We talked about selling the house, but pride kept us from doing so.  We struggled for 4 ½ years to keep that house.  When we listed the house last September, I thought we would have time to look at houses, pack everything up and move at a leisurely pace. Boy, did God have other plans!  Our house sold in 3 days, we had 1 week to find a new place and had to be out before the holidays.  We lost money on the house, but that was a small price to pay to be able to walk away.

As Paul Harvey says, Now, for the rest of the story…We moved out of our house (with a little lot of help from our friends), put stuff in storage and waited to close on our new, less expensive but oh-so-much-better house. We waited. Celebrated Thanksgiving.  And waited. Celebrated Christmas with our version of a Charlie Brown tree. Waited some more. Rang in 2013.  Waited 2 more weeks.  Finally on January 15, 2 months after closing on our old house we were given the keys to our new home.  The wait was finally over!  We felt like we had finally reached the Promised Land.  God had blessed our obedience.

The new house was only the beginning.  Our desire as a family, has been to simplify: our lifestyle, our schedule, our clutter.  Simplifying for us meant to be able to spend more time together as a family.  It is hard to do, when Kevin works in Belle Chasse and our move added 25 more minutes to his commute.  We have been praying for a while for a new job closer to home or at least this side of the Crescent City Connection. God has answered our prayers.  Kevin has a new job that he recently started.  Not only is this new job this side of the CCC, it is only 10 minutes from our driveway.

So many blessings and all because we chose to be obedient.

Is God asking you to do something that you don’t want to do? Don’t let pride or fear of failure hold you back.  If God is asking, then you can trust that he will be faithful. He will provide.  Give Him control.  It will be worth it and will be better  than you ever imagined!
 
Blessings,
Stefaney

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