Cultivate Prompt Obedience – What are you waiting for

In the last couple of days we’ve seen how important it is to hear, and obey, God’s voice.

I want to give you two important warnings in connection with this theme of hearing God’s voice. First, cultivate prompt obedience—and I want to emphasize prompt. Abraham is set forth in the Bible as an example for all who believe, and one of the ways in which he is an example is that whenever he heard God’s voice, he obeyed Him promptly, without delay. Here is an example:

“Then He said, ‘Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.’ So Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his don-key, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son.” (Genesis 22:2–3 NKJV)

Notice, Abraham rose early in the morning the next day. As soon as it was possible, he set out to obey what he had heard God say to him. I can tell you from experience and from observation that the longer you delay to obey God, the harder it becomes. The only easy way to obey God is to obey Him promptly, the first time He speaks.

A beautiful detail from Abraham's story is that his unconditional immediate obedience was based on faith and trust. Just look what Abraham said to his servants before they went up the mountain: “And Abraham said to his young men, Stay here with the donkey; the lad[a] and I will go yonder and worship, and we will come back to you.” Although Abraham knew what how terribly difficult it was what he needed to do, he was confident that God would provide a solution, and that trust was the basis of his unconditional obedience.

Let us look at a negative example. Somebody who delayed in obeying God was Lot’s wife. She was willing to come out of Sodom, but she came so slowly she never made it. She looked back and was turned into a pillar of salt. One of the shortest verses in the teaching of Jesus is Luke 17:32: “Remember Lot’s wife!” In other words, do not delay to obey, or it may be too late.

In order to be able to obey immediately as Abraham did, it is necessary that you trust God. In the end, there is only one question: do you really trust God? He loves you, He gives you so much, and He knows so much better than you what is good for you.