Life

Obedience Takes Courage

Being obedient is not always easy, but necessary. Spiritually, I have struggled with being obedient for some time. Although the struggle has became easier since intentionally allowing God to lead, I still struggle with it. I still question whether the moves are right for me, especially when those moves cause uncomfortable shifts. So yeah, I am still working on being obedient. With that being said, I can also proudly say that I am becoming better at listening and complying. Yes… patting myself on the back.

Yesterday, Bishop T.D. Jakes said the following during his sermon – “Your gift will get you there, but your obedience will keep you there.” If I want to stay where I’m going, I must be obedient. Period.

This morning I was scrolling through my Facebook memories and there was the word, “Obedience,” again. This time it was associated with last year’s blog, Hello Sunday July 31, 2022. That particular blog was about me logging off one of my main Twitter (X) accounts.

For several years, I had been struggling with the value I had placed on that account. Basically, it was my life. At first, it allowed me to get away when life became a little too much, but it did not stop there. Later it became my obsession (being very transparent). Sadly, I did not see it at the time – you know it’s hard to see things when you’re right in the middle of it. Y’all, I was obsessed and addicted to it. I was addicted to the interactions and feedback and impressions (yes, I’m a numbers person and Twitter analytics was my best friend). Well, God told me I needed to let it go (I explain all of this in last year’s Hello Sunday). I was never told to deactivate the account, nor delete it, I was simply asked to log off. To log off so that I could get my priorities and focus right. Listen, the way I reacted you would’ve thought He had asked me to throw away my entire life. Y’all, my priorities were not right. All of the glory and praise I should have been giving Him was going elsewhere.

Over the past year, I have logged off, logged on, logged off again, then logged back on… currently, I am logged on. This time I logged back on because I was instructed to do so. I was obedient. Won’t go into detail but the account wasn’t the problem, my obsession and addiction to it was. Until I had learned how to properly handle it, I could not log back on.

Y’all, I am so grateful God loves me. He loves me so much that He even protects me from myself. Honestly, I would not be where I am today had I not been obedient. I would’ve still been stuck where I was, doing the same things and getting nowhere. I’m so glad I listened and obeyed.

I am so much stronger and better equipped because I listened and obeyed.

Be obedient.♥️

Shaun

Life

Wednesday Writings

Obedience. The definition of obedience is – an act or instance of obeying (following the command or guidance of).

As many of you know, I have been on this journey of completely allowing God to lead; to follow his guidance without wavering. Well.. just imagine how that’s going. Sigh

So, there is this little thing called free will, which is the ability to act at one’s discretion. Well, I’m finding free will isn’t always my friend. During this journey, free will has popped up numerous times and continues to pop up whenever – 1) I don’t believe God is moving fast enough or He’s moving way too fast; 2) I believe things are going in the wrong direction; or 3) whenever I flat out don’t want to follow His instruction. Y’all, sometimes free will is a pain and often delays blessings. Ugh!

Last night I was given specific instructions to leave a certain matter alone, to allow God to work so that I could see His glory. Y’all know I love watching God work! Well, that didn’t happen. I kept picking at it. Checking to see if progress was being made. Kind of like putting a bandage on a wound and removing it every couple of hours to see if it’s healing. Uhh.. It won’t if you don’t leave it alone. So, this morning I couldn’t help myself. I couldn’t leave things alone. I went in and started manipulating things. I was like, “God, I’m just gonna do this one little thing then give it back to You.” And that’s exactly what I did. And guess what, I feel like I have failed another challenge. Not in a shameful way, but in a way that has me regretting my decision. However, at the same time, I still have the desire to do better. I just have to know how things will turn out if I allow God to lead.

Okay.. y’all, I just had another “Aha” moment. Imagine going into a lab, starting an experiment and when the experiment isn’t moving along fast enough, you decide to manipulate the process. Guess what?! You just altered the outcome. You will never know what could’ve been had you left it alone.

Slowly but surely, I’m learning. If I am going to allow God to lead, I must be obedient. Period.

Thanks for reading! Hope you have a lovely Wednesday!

Shaun