The simple things are most precious

:: What My Obedience to God Costs Other People

"They laid hold upon one Simon...and on him they laid the cross."

From my daily devotional "My Utmost for His Highest"-Oswald Chambers.  I love, love, love this book.  It never ever gets old.

If we obey God it is going to cost other people more than it costs us, and that is where the sting comes in.  If we are in love with our Lord, obedience does not cost us anything, it is a delight, but it costs those who do not love Him a good deal.  If we obey God it will mean that other people's plans are upset, and they will gibe us with it, "You call this Christianity?"  We can prevent suffering; but if we are going to obey God, we must not prevent it, we must let the cost be paid.

Our human pride entrenches itself on this point, and we say, I will never accept anything from anyone.  We shall have to, or disobey God.  We have no right to expect to be in any other relation than our Lord Himself was in (see Luke 8:2-3).

Stagnation in spiritual life comes when we say we will bear the whole thing ourselves.  We cannot.  We are so involved in the universal purposes of God that immediately when we obey God, others are affected.  Are we going to remain loyal in our obedience to God and go thru humiliation of refusing to be independent, or are we going to take the other line and say, I will not cost other people suffering?  We can disobey God if we choose, and it will bring immediate relief to the situation, but we shall be grief to our Lord.  Whereas if we obey God, He will look after those who have been pressed into the consequences of our obedience.  We have simply to obey and to leave all consequences with Him.

Beware of the inclination to dictate to God as to what you will allow to happen if you obey Him.

I have experienced this but I've not given it much thought, at least about how my obedience to God causes those who don't love Him to suffer.  But it does.  And we really feel it when we are living with those who don't love Him, or at best don't love Him a great deal.  There is a balance here when it comes to husbands and wifes.  Of which I'll expound on more but it's all kind of jumbled up in my head right now.  God is still teaching me on this.  And in order to live by Titus 2:3-5, I must be clear on God's teachings, what He is teaching me, and that I've understood according to the line of scripture.  So, in order to not write any false teaching or misunderstood thoughts, I will wait.  For now...well I'll share with you so that you can ponder this as well and if you feel so inclined, post your thoughts so that I can share in your understand.

For now, I must go.  Hubby just came home sick with the flu, oh joy.  DS just recovered from 2 weeks of it and is now back in school in spite of the continued coughing.  Thankfully, I've not gotten it, at least a debilitating case of it.  Thank you God.

Pursuing Simplicity in Him,

Sherri