Don't Wait to Obey God

“I will hasten and not delay to obey your commands.” (Psalm 119:60 NIV)

When the angel appeared to Joseph in a dream, he told Joseph, “Do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 1:20b NIV). So that’s what Joseph did. “When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife” (Matthew 1:24). He didn’t hesitate; he just did it.

There is a refreshing immediacy to Joseph’s relationship with God. When God said it, Joseph did it.

If you believe God loves you and you want to live a life of obedience in response to his love, then this is how you should respond. Living in immediate obedience to God is a kind of life that breathes with excitement and joy.

I’ve had the opportunity to meet a lot of great men and women of faith from around the world. They are all different from each other, but there is one thing they all have in common: When they sense God saying to do something, they don’t hesitate. They step out and do it.

First John 5:3 says, “This is love for God: to keep his commands. And his commands are not burdensome.” So if something God asks you to do feels like a burden, what’s wrong? Usually it’s procrastination. When we don’t act right away, it becomes harder to do the longer we wait. But when we do what God says, the most refreshing freedom will come into our lives.

Talk About It

• What is God calling you to do? Is it a phone call you need to make? An action you need to take?
• Whatever it is, write it down right now, tell God you’re willing to do it, and ask him to give you the strength you need to make it happen.

(Written by Tom Holladay)

Obeying God Requires Taking a Risk

“After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, ‘Get up, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who were trying to take the child’s life are dead.’” (Matthew 2:19-20 NIV)

As uncomfortable as it was for Joseph to move his family to Egypt, imagine how scary it would be for him to obey God’s command to come back to Israel. It was like going back into the jaws of the lion. He was going to take Mary and Jesus back to where his son’s life had been in danger. But because Joseph trusted God and what he was saying, Joseph took the risk and went there because he knew that was the right place to be.

The Bible says, “Even when I am afraid, I keep on trusting you” (Psalm 56:3 CEV). Notice this verse says, “when I am afraid” not “if I am afraid.” We may want a life of no fears in this world, but that only happens in Heaven. In this life, we’re all going to face fears of one kind or another.

We have some big fears and some little fears. We fear the future, what’s going to happen with our jobs, our family, and we fear little things like whether we said the right thing to someone, whether that presentation went well, even fear of making a phone call.

In all of these situations, you have a choice to make. Are you going to let the fear control you, or are you going to take a risk of faith because you know you have a God who loves you?

That risk of faith could mean going someplace you’ve never been before or forgiving someone you thought you couldn’t forgive. It could mean leaving your job. A risk of faith could also be praying about something or deciding to trust God with a situation or a relationship you’ve held tight in your hand.

Talk About It

• What Christ-like risk is God telling you to take in faith?

(Written by Tom Holladay)

To Obey God, Let Go

“When the wise men had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. ‘Get up,’ he said, ‘take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.’ So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, where he stayed until the death of Herod.” (Matthew 2:13-15a NIV)

Joseph and Mary had to let a lot of things go because of their faith journey. They left everything they knew when they headed to Egypt. And, in one sense, what they were sacrificing was their comfort at the deepest level.

It is often uncomfortable to trust God and follow his plan because we get comfortable with the wrong things. We get comfortable with our little habits and rituals, the things that get us stuck where we are instead of getting us to where God wants to grow us.

If you commit your health to God, it will probably mean giving up some of your favorite foods. If you commit your finances to God, it will probably mean cutting back on your spending.

It’s uncomfortable to break a habit. It’s uncomfortable to face a fear. It’s uncomfortable to go somewhere you’ve never been before or forgive someone who has hurt you. But growth and change always come through doing those uncomfortable things, and that’s what’s good in it.

But if we don’t face those fears, we continue to hold onto something that makes us feel comfortable and end up turning our back on God who is the source of comfort.

The Bible says, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort” (2 Corinthians 1:3 NIV).

I invite you this Christmas, like never before, to recognize that God is the God of all comfort. And in those moments when you want to turn back to that old habit, that old way of thinking which pulls you off track, turn to God and say, “God, give me your comfort.”

Talk About It

• What act of obedience have you put off because of your fear or discomfort?

• Pray for God’s comfort and courage to move you out of complacency and into obedience.

(Written by Tom Holladay)