What is the Cost you Will Choose to Pay?

I've spent the summer reading Judges and 1 Samuel. They're not always the most enjoyable books to read (although a bit more interesting than lists of names or laws can be). As I've read and reflected on these books in God's Word, I've noticed a theme that runs through much of what they have to say:

Both disobedience and obedience to God have a cost

Over and over, these two books and many others tell the story of a choice to disobey God and the cost of that choice for the individual or for the entire nation. You can't really miss it as you read.

Sometimes, even the best of intentions was still disobedience. Sometimes it was outright refusal to obey. Sometimes it was a slow drift from where they should have been. The common thread in all of these is disobedience to God.

It made me wonder about my own life. Where are those places where I'm paying the cost of my own disobedience? Because our disobedience to God does have a cost.

Seeing the cost of disobedience so clearly made me notice something else. It highlighted the stories where obedience to God was the choice made. Often those stories of obedience to God also had a cost.

Choosing to obey God didn't mean there was no cost. It meant the cost was different. It mean the cost led to a deeper relationship with God, rather than increasing distance - to a greater level of trust.

Sometimes, from an earthly perspective, the higher cost came in choosing to obey God. It is the choice to go against what the world around us tells us. We might look weird. We might be made fun of. We might be unpopular. In some places, we might even put our lives in danger for our stand.

So, if both disobedience and obedience have a cost, then we have to make a choice:

What is the cost we are willing to pay? 

The cost of disobedience? Or the cost of obedience?

Stepping Into What God Calls You

What is the name God is calling you that you're afraid to step into? What is God call you that He placed in you that you don't see yet?

I've had those two questions running through my head for a few weeks. I started reflecting on them after reading the story of Gideon in Judges 6 & 7. Gideon's story isn't a long run in Scripture, but it has some powerful lessons for us.

Judges 6:1-16 is the passage I was reading when these questions formed in my mind. I'm only going to include a couple of verses here, but you can read the passage in its entirety here if you want.

"When the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, he said: The Lord is with you mighty warrior." (Judges 6:12)

After stating how he didn't see how God was with Israel (Judges 6:13), Gideon protests the name Mighty Warrior.

"Pardon me, my Lord, Gideon replied, but how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh and I am the least in my family." (Judges 6:15)

Not only could Gideon not see how God was with His people, he didn't believe what God had to say about him with the name God used.

Granted, from a human perspective, Gideon was right. His human perspective couldn't see God and definitely wouldn't see his hiding in a winepress as being a mighty warrior. I suspect we'd all feel the same way in a similar situation.

But, God isn't limited by our human perspective. He sees beyond it. He sees what He has placed in us.

In the moment when he was first called a mighty warrior, Gideon didn't look it or feel it, but God knew that was what he was going to become. So God called Gideon a mighty warrior - He called out what He knew was in Gideon and called Gideon to step into it.

I think God does the same thing with us. He uses the people He places around us to call us to step into what He has for us.

We may not see in ourselves what someone is calling out in us. We might protest what we hear and have our own list of reasons why we're not the person that is being called out in us.

The question is whether we'll respond or not. Gideon protested and asked for proof it was God, but eventually stepped into the name he was called. And Gideon is no remembered in Scripture as a mighty warrior.

What about us?
Will we respond by stepping it it, even if we're not sure yet?
Or will we run from it, because we're not sure yet?

Like Gideon, our choice determines the life we'll live and how we will be remembered.

Finding Freedom

When I cried out

You heard my cry

And You rescued me

You freed me from my chains

You pulled me to my feet

You taught me to walk again

You steadied my unsure legs

As I began to move again

Now I am free to run

To dance and sing and celebrate

Nothing holding me back

Nothing to hold me down