And if you
faithfully obey the voice of the Lord your God, being careful to do all his
commandments that I command you today, the Lord your God will set you high
above all the nations of the earth. And
all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if you obey the voice
of the Lord your God. Deuteronomy 28:1-2
Sometimes obedience is hard.
It is easy to say we want to follow God, but when it comes to making a
sacrifice to be obedient it gets tough. I
am not talking about hard like, I have to
have self-control so I can’t eat that whole bag of chips today. I am talking about sacrificing to follow the
path God has for your life. There are many good examples of people in the Bible
who were asked to make crazy sacrifices in order to be obedient to God. These faithful examples didn’t blink an eye
in the face of what would cause utter disbelief in our hearts that we were
actually asked to consider these things.
But they were willing to trust God, no matter what the sacrifice.
Abraham was asked to sacrifice his own son, and was willing
to obey God to the point of raising the sword before God provided a ram caught
in the bushes nearby. Shadrach, Meshach,
and Abednego were asked to worship another God, but they refused and were
thrown into a fiery furnace as a result.
God saved from them the fire.
They emerged without even a singed hair or the lingering smell of smoke
on their clothes. Hosea was asked by God
to take a harlot as a wife. As a result
of his obedience, a whole nation was restored.
These are some examples of faithful servants of God who were asked to
make some big sacrifices to obey God and carry out His plan.
We usually associate sacrifice with giving up something
valuable. But the truth is that when we
sacrifice to obey God, we are getting something more valuable than anything we
might have to give up in the process.
Obeying God only leads to goodness and a life full of value. Holding on to what we think is valuable, when
obeying God would require us to give it up, automatically decreases the value
of that something as well as decreases the value we place on God and our
relationship with Him.
Obedience to God always brings reward. It may only be the reward in your heart of
knowing that you have obeyed God, but it always brings reward. The sacrifice, whatever it may be, is always
worth it.
Scripture to Claim:
Turn my eyes from looking
at worthless things; and give me life in your ways. Confirm to your servant your promise, that
you may be feared. Psalm 119:37-38
