When Obedience Feels Hard
“If you love me, obey my commandments.”
John 14:15 (NLT)
There is a kind of obedience that comes easy. The kind that lines up with what we already want. The kind that fits neatly into our plans. That kind of obedience feels good. It makes us feel faithful, mature, and secure. But that is not the kind of obedience that shapes us. The kind that transforms us usually feels costly.
Obedience, real obedience, means saying yes when everything in you wants to say no. It means laying your will down before the Lord and trusting that His way is better, even when it hurts. Even when it is inconvenient. Even when no one else understands it.
God is not looking for perfection. He is looking for surrender.
When Jesus told His disciples, “If you love me, obey my commandments,” He wasn’t laying down a cold demand. He was offering an invitation. An invitation to walk with Him, to live like Him, and to learn trust on a deeper level. That kind of obedience is not born out of fear. It grows out of love. And love will always move you to action.
There are people reading this right now who know exactly what obedience God is asking of them. Maybe it’s a conversation you need to have. Maybe it’s an apology. A confession. A step of faith. Or maybe it’s waiting quietly when every part of you wants to run ahead. No matter what it is, the question is not whether it is easy. The question is whether He is Lord.
We cannot claim Jesus as Savior and ignore Him as Master. When we signed up to follow Him, we surrendered the right to live our own way. The cross is not a decoration for our life. It is a death sentence to our old one. And on the other side of that death, obedience is how we walk out the new life He gave us.
Think about Noah. He built a boat before there was a drop of rain. People laughed. They called him foolish. He obeyed anyway. Abraham left everything familiar and followed God into the unknown. Joshua marched around a city with trumpets instead of weapons. Esther went before a king, knowing it could cost her life. All of them had something in common. They obeyed, and God honored their obedience.
Obedience will not always make sense to the world. It may not even make sense to you at first. But God’s commands are never random. He sees the whole path. He knows what is ahead. Every “yes” to Him is a step into the purposes He has prepared for you.
And let’s be honest, obedience does not always bring immediate blessing. Sometimes it brings discomfort. Sometimes it brings loss. Sometimes it looks like loneliness. But God never wastes the obedience of His people. He multiplies it. He uses it. He weaves it into His kingdom work in ways we may not understand on this side of eternity.
If you are in a season where obedience is costing you something, you are in good company. You are standing where saints and prophets have stood. You are walking the road Jesus walked when He said, “Not my will, but yours be done.”
So do not shrink back. Do not second-guess your yes. God sees it. God honors it. And God will meet you in it. Your obedience may feel small, but it carries eternal weight. It may feel hidden, but it echoes in the courts of heaven.
God is not asking you to understand everything. He is asking you to trust Him in everything.
So take the step. Make the call. Stay where He told you to stay. Go where He told you to go. Wait when He says wait. Move when He says move. Obey with your heart wide open and your hands held high.
And when obedience feels hard, remember this: Jesus never asks anything of you that He has not already done Himself. He obeyed the Father all the way to the cross. And because He did, we can.
Scripture to Hold Onto:
“And we can be sure that we know him if we obey his commandments. If someone claims, ‘I know God,’ but doesn’t obey God’s commandments, that person is a liar and is not living in the truth. But those who obey God’s word truly show how completely they love him. That is how we know we are living in him.”
1 John 2:3–5 (NLT)
Add comment
Comments