Delayed Obedience is Disobedience

1 Thessalonians 5:23 May the God who gives us peace make you holy in every way and keep your whole being -- spirit, soul, and body -- free from every fault at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

There's a freshness that comes once we obey the promptings God is laying in our hearts. Writing this article, I still struggled with delayed obedience before I started punching my keypads. It took a friend's WhatsApp status to convict me to finally write something and stop delaying. Although I still want to argue about delayed obedience because the older son hesitated before obeying while the younger one said YES sir and went about his business (Matt 21: 28-32). Well, I don't think we should be like either of them when there's the option of becoming like Peter, Andrew and the two sons of Zebedee (Matt 4: 18-22).

Firstly, my main aim of writing today is to obey, it's been a while I wrote and it's been a long standing nudge in my heart to write again but I've not had the time or inspiration to put something down until today. Also, I'm writing to share my experience on how delayed obedience robbed me of a couple of things. Finally, I write with the hope that someone learns a thing or two that will help their walk with God.

Sometime last year, I got an instruction to do a particular thing, but I was like 'God which way to go na, abeg anyi a ga tor n'ihe till when? Lemme try my style for once bikonu.' Fiam! That was the beginning of a stretched out struggle. My faith wasn't at the highest at that time, hence my inclination towards taking such a risk in my relationship with God 😔. 

So instead of rising from one glory to another, I plummeted to abyss and back.😒 He only gives grace to the humble (James 4:6), and I wasn't being humble by my defiance to God's directives. For example, there were promises He made, which I found myself struggling to walk into them. But our Father being merciful as is in His nature, still allowed His word come to pass. Guys, if you lose grace🤦, you are on a rollercoaster of fiery stuffs. Everything around me suffered, as I encountered financial losses, got unnecessarily sick, lost my mind and had panic attacks, struggled to maintain daily fellowship with God and man etc. At that junction, the thorns growing in my heart were mounting, and as such, I couldn't win souls nor write on this blog because this is a means of evangelism too (Matt 13:1-9, 18-23). It was indeed terrible but our merciful Redeemer knows how to pull off a restoration plan.

At the point of realization of my error, redemption set in and the recovery has been great. I lost, but I've gained more and still gaining. I hope to Follow Him this year without doubts or the adventurous mindset that always wants to rebel, moreso to keep fellowship at a tempo where such doubts can't infiltrate.

 As we walk with God this year, let's ask Him to help us remain humble and follow Him in His terms. Amen.

GIC