To Obey, Even When We feel Unworthy
God's timing is perfect! When He speaks, the time to respond in obedience is now. We often act as if we have all the time in the world to obey Him, but history doesn't wait on our commitments. There is no such thing as postponing a decision with God. Either we obey, or we disobey. It is either faith or unbelief, obedience or disobedience. When God announces that now is the acceptable time, what you do next is critical. How often people have been unprepared when a word came to them from the Lord. God said, “Now is the time for you to respond to Me” and their response was, “But I'm not ready. I have some things I need to do first. I'm too busy!” (Matt. 8:21). God's timing is always perfect. He knows you, and He is fully aware of your circumstances. He knows all that He has built into your life until now, and He extends His invitation knowing that His resources are more than adequate for any assignment He gives you. That is why Scripture tells us God is concerned with our heart. If we do not keep our heart in love with Jesus, our disobedience when God speaks could affect the lives of others. When God speaks it is always out of the context of eternity. We don't have to know all the implications of what He is asking. We just have to know that it is a word from Almighty God. “Now” is always the acceptable time to respond to the Lord! - Blackaby Experiencing God Day by Day
It's not hard to be brought low in life. It's not difficult, as I heard in a television show once, to "feel lower than a snakes belly".
I often struggle with obedience right after doing or saying something that I shouldn't have said or done. Sometimes it's neither and I still feel like I am going through a Job season of difficulty, like I am right now. Life is difficult. It has nothing to do with advancement at my work. Has nothing really to do with work at all. It has to do with Spiritual warfare and the barrages of small attacks, not necessarily the big ones.
Your will takes a beating when things don't go right. It takes another when the troubles of the day compound like we read had happened to Job once the assault by Satan began. I find myself in a similar situation.
What to do? I haven't gotten that far in his book, but, I am reading Dr. David Jeremiah's book "What to do When You Don't Know What to Do". I can only share with you life as it happens. I can only press on. My Doctor isn't privy to my life to know what goes on in it. She only sees the physical results of what life has been like. She orders tests and tries to make a diagnosis based on that...AND what all I share with her on what is happening in my life. You take your car to a place to be worked on, you hand them the keys to get access to your car, THEN you must relay as accurately as you can what isn't right.
We are often brought to things to go through things. Not to avoid them because through is necessary. I have saud the prayer of avoidance. Lord take this away. Lord stop this. Lord help I can't take this. Lord don't let so-and-so have this or die from that. Lord....well fill in the blanks.
Often obedience requires going through.
Daniel had to go IN the lion's den.
Noah and his family HAD to build an Ark over 100 years and spend 40 days and nights living through the Great Flood.
Daniel's 3 friends HAD to go into the fiery furnace. Saul HAD to be stopped by Jesus to make him into Paul. Samson HAD to be brought low to end the tyranny of those who had captured him. We all too often want to use an escape clause that doesn't exist with God.
Temptation is to be avoided. THAT has an escape clause. Intentionally indulging in temptations, seeing how much we can (be real here) enjoy it before we want pulled out of that fire.
A result of a lot of both disobedience and just plain Spiritual Warfare leads us to think we aren't worthy of what God brings into our lives for us to do and go through.
We don't feel worthy to be useful to Him.
We try to be 'busy' for Him but aren't really busy for Jesus. We justify our disobedience and try an exchange program. Do this good thing so that it offsets that bad thing that I want but don't want to admit that I want. People by the millions if not billions do this weekly and daily. They believe a lie of going to a Priest and 'confessing' gives them a ticket to go out into their world and do as they please until next week. Paul, in the book of Romans specifically taught against that. Yet it seems many denominations don't teach that.
We who are Christ's don't belong in this world in order to live like the world. You aren't necessarily going to be successful and rich. You and I are to be fruitful for Christ. Whether in physical prosperity or not that mission doesn't change. Whether we feel unworthy or not that doesn't change. Whether we feel like it or not it doesn't change. Whether or not the world looks more attractive and appealing it doesn't matter. To take up His cross, His yoke, means living for Jesus in all that we do. I am never going to see the thousands of things in this world that I have always wanted to because I have an assignment from my Savior. Sure some of my desires have been seen. But I should never let the apparent attractiveness of this world or its riches detract me from living for Jesus.
I often do not feel worthy. Yet Jesus still stays with me. I am facing some rough things at work. Jesus is still with me. Would I pray to avoid these things? I could. But I won't. Jesus is taking me through, not around, those things.
Look at your life in this moment. Are you praying to avoid something that God has kept before you? Try instead to pray that He take your hand and guide you through it. He survived the torture before the Cross, endured the Cross, enduring death. Came back from the dead. He can handle what we go through in life.
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