Just like we have to wait for the seed to grow to maturity to celebrate a harvest, we often have no real vision of what God is doing in our lives, until we look back on any given situation. He allows some struggles to define and refine.
We cannot change other people, we can change how we view them. Choosing love and forgiveness is helpful and healing. Forgiveness releases our own burdens of hurt and anger ... and it frees up space in our heads for good things.
So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up. -Galatians 6:9
Life isn't always going to feel good. Doing what is right is not always going to be easy. Obedience in those moments are relationship changing, as you get to know God better. He never ceases to amaze me with the profound ways he moves, when He is invited into any equation.
"That's the excitement in obedience, finding out later what God had in mind."
Think obedience is hard. Me, too. Then I am humbled by this truth:
"You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had. Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross." -Philippians 2:5-8
On my best days, I am not even close. My hard things are not even close to his hard thing! He bore the sin and shame of the the world. All of it.
"He humbled himself in obedience" ... it gives me new eyes on what it must have been like to say, "It is finished." Through the worst of the suffering and on to the death conquering resurrection. The joy of returning to the Father. The reluctance to leave the loved ones here, so he made some moments with them in those days after resurrection and before ascension.
Jesus is a tough act to follow, but he still calls, "Follow me". He delights in our sincere attempts to chase him. He wants us to know him with such intimacy, trust and obedience become part of the adventure.
As Steven Curtis Chapman sings in "The Great Adventure" ..."Saddle up your horses! We've got a trail to blaze." (Thanks Earworm for that morning tune.)
Today, I am grateful there can be excitement in obedience.
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