If we obey God, it is going to cost other people more than it costs us, and that is where the pain begins. If we are in love with our Lord, obedience does not cost us anything— it is a delight. But to those who do not love Him, our obedience does cost a great deal. If we obey God, it will mean that other people’s plans are upset. They will ridicule us as if to say, “You call this Christianity?” We could prevent the suffering, but not if we are obedient to God. We must let the cost be paid.

When our obedience begins to cost others, our human pride entrenches itself and we say, “I will never accept anything from anyone.” But we must, or disobey God. We have no right to think that the type of relationships we have with others should be any different from those the Lord Himself had (see Luke 8:1-3).A lack of progress in our spiritual life results when we try to bear all the costs ourselves. And actually, we cannot. Because we are so involved in the universal purposes of God, others are immediately affected by our obedience to Him.

Will we remain faithful in our obedience to God and be willing to suffer the humiliation of refusing to be independent? Or will we do just the opposite and say, “I will not cause other people to suffer”? We can disobey God if we choose, and it will bring immediate relief to the situation, but it will grieve our Lord. If, however, we obey God, He will care for those who have suffered the consequences of our obedience. We must simply obey and leave all the consequences with Him.Beware of the inclination to dictate to God what consequences you would allow as a condition of your obedience to Him.____________________________________________________________

January 11, 2016

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

Good morning Lord and thank You for this day and this devotional. I think that this is going to be one of those “iron sharpening iron” kinds of days with Oswald Chambers though. Occasionally he seems to take a polarizing position just to generate a response. Chambers suggests that our obedience to God will cause us to hurt others and we must be alright with that or we are disobeying God. I recall Luke 14:26 when Jesus was talking about letting go (hating is the word in the King James Version) of mother, father, brothers, sisters and ourselves. But are we to assume our obedience will always create polarizing results with our friends and family?

And God says…”Recall the lessons when we talked about letting go of the outcomes? Your surrender, connection and obedience require that you let go of your desired and imagined results and let God be in control of your life. When you are truly surrendered you live in a place where you absolutely know and believe that all things work together for good. And when you are truly surrendered, and the Holy Spirit is living through you, it is not difficult to let go of your own need to be right, look good, and feel good and to be in control. It is also not difficult to let go of your desired outcomes and the desired outcomes of others. Seek first the kingdom of God, which is Jesus, and I will provide everything else you require, including the peace that passes understanding about my love and grace as it applies to your life and the lives of those you love.”