Obedience is the requirement; the outcome belongs to God. So often as believers, we mistakenly expect that our success is dependent on how circumstances, people, and lives turn out. But the reality is that our walk with God, our relationship with Christ is measured by the level of our obedience. Success is the level at which we have applied the Word of God to our hearts, lives and behaviors, not how that plays out in the world around us.
What a great relief it is to know that God is the one who controls the outcome, all He asks is that we humbly obey His Word. I have experienced this myself and seen so many others who live by faith forget this very truth. Pastors especially fall prey to this; mistaken notion that the success of their ministry is measured by how many baptisms, how much attendance growth, how many programs, etc., happen under their leadership. But freedom comes with the simple surrender to God’s will and His Word, the love they have for Jesus, and how that is evidenced in their daily lives.
Hebrews 5:8 says that Jesus learned obedience through suffering. It hurts to know that God uses a part of our suffering to sanctify us. But again freedom comes from knowing that through it all, our call is simply to obey Him and He will be faithful to the Will of God with the outcome.
Pressure to “succeed” is a crushing burden, because we see success through the lens of this world. Numbers are never what Jesus or the Word of God told us were to be our focus, but people are repeatedly mentioned. Going back to the most important commandments like Jesus says in Matthew 22:37-40 to love God and love your neighbor. It’s always been about obedience. Adam and Eve chose not to obey and the result was sin. Over and over since then, we humans have struggled to obey our creator. It’s our greatest challenge, but when we do, our greatest success. What God does with that gives others hope, saves marriages, leads people to freedom, grows that church, inspires faith, comforts the afflicted, encourages the burdened, helps the needy, and most of all gives God glory.
We can all think of areas in our lives where our focus has been on the outcome and that has dictated the level of obedience, or even caused us to disobey or not hear what God is telling us in the moment, but if we shift our focus to see that our success is only to obey, humbly and with intention, we partner with God in what HE is already doing. What a great notion, to be a partner in our Lord’s will, to be invited to do good works for Him and His people. How much more will we see successes and place the glory appropriately when we do this?
I have personally experienced a previous pastor of ours act this virtue out on mine and my husband’s behalf. We had moved away and therefore had not been going to his church for over 6 months, we had even been attending a new church in our new town. My husband and I began to experience hard times that led to very bad choices to the point that I especially was not living a life that looked anything like a follower of Christ’s life would and should look. One very bad night at about 11PM all of this came to a head and I was determined that our marriage needed to end. My husband, not willing to give up, but not knowing how to hold us together, sent a single text to our previous pastor. Within minutes, he got a reply. It read “We are on our way, we will be there in 4 hours”.
The pastor and his wife dropped everything over the next day to stand in the gap for us. They met with us. They prayed for us. They never once judged us or made us feel as broken and far from where we should have been as we were. Over the next months and years, they poured into us. The humility they showed, the hope they held, and the encouragement they gave led us not just back to the Lord and to each other but motivated us to be obedient as well. We surrendered our whole lives and every decision to God and in the past eight years have found Him leading us into lots of situations where we too have had to shift our focus to success being active obedience, not the outcome.
I know that our pastor and his wife were not only willing but eager to be there for us. They never said, “we know you know better, we can’t be bothered with that, we’ll pray for you”. They could have had so many other reactions to us and to our struggles, but they loved God, followed Jesus and loved us enough to walk through the hard times with us. They were obedient, with humility and grace and they never worried about or took on the responsibility of the outcome, they simply said yes to God when He told them to help, to hope, to pray, to lead, to disciple, and to trust.
Though it took time and effort and lots of grace, their obedience was used by God in our lives and through that has now led us to carry it on to those around us, in any and all areas we have been directed by God to obey. I’m writing this article today, doing what God’s led me to do now with my life and ministry as the outcome God provided from that humble obedience. Their obedience led to our obedience and as our obedience plays out in our lives and the places God has called us to, we have had many opportunities to lead others into obedience. The greatest part is they’d never want anyone to know all that they have done because they know the outcome was never theirs to take credit for or even think about. They just wanted to obey, to serve God in any circumstance He led them to.
As pastors, church volunteers, workers, leaders, believers, parents, children, and people we would do well to remember that our job, our call, our purpose is simply to obey. I’m reminded of the old hymn that says “When we walk with the Lord, in the light of His Word, what a glory He sheds on our way, let us do HIs good will, He abides with us still and with all who will trust and obey. Trust and obey, for there’s no other way, to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.” The key to a happy life in Jesus is just to trust and obey. Where are you carrying too much? Could it be that you’re trying to carry the outcome, dictate the situation, shoulder a burden that isn’t yours to bear? What might change if you simply obey and let God be the one who deals with the outcome?
Pastors especially, you are given a great responsibility to lead, to teach, to guide, to help, to protect and so many more things. If I can offer anything, it is this; we trust that you are called by God, even if we push back and complain about some of the ways He leads you to lead us. Please remember when you teach us to humbly obey, you are a success and you have done your part. You are building a legacy that points to Jesus, glorify God and ultimately display a good and faithful servant He has called you to be.
Thank you, to all pastors and leaders in the church. Thank you for loving God, loving others. Thank you for leading us. Thank you for your open, honest, humble obedience. Without you I can only imagine the hopelessness to which this world would have surrendered.
Amanda Tomlinson is the Music and Children’s Ministry Coordinator at Nucla First Baptist Church.
