The Pain of Obedience

by Salem Afangideh

For me, this season of obedience looks like a whole lot of sleepless nights, studying for 4-6 hours every day, an exhausted brain, constantly rejecting opportunities to hang out with friends so that my free time can be spent with my beloved, trying to squeeze out some time at the end of the day to hang out with my family.

In the past I have typically been content with whatever the LORD has called me to do. I have grown to be comfortable with waking up in the early hours of the morning (even though I am NOT a morning person) to spend time with Him. I have even embraced the fact that I will forever been known as weird because God has this idea often that I need to go up to random people and pray for them or encourage them with whatever Word He has put on my heart for them. But then, the LORD decided to stretch me even further, when He decided to call me to this crazy wild ride called "law school".

Now, I am not totally going to blame this on the LORD because although I know that this is how He specifically wants me to use my talents to serve the 27 million people in slavery today, I did have the desire to go to law school and I believe that when God calls you to do something, He will put a desire (sometimes it may be a really small desire) in your heart for what He has called you to do, but that does not mean it will be easy.

What does obedience to the LORD look like in this season of your life?

That is not an easy question to answer. If you don't spend a lot of time in His presence; enough to discern His will—It could be as simple as sitting with your sick neighbor and loving on them, or as complex as moving to another country to show people the love of Jesus. Either way, you play a very important role in His Kingdom coming to earth and sometimes you will be required to give of yourself and your resources until it absolutely stretches you and hurts.

In those moments when you are the most stretched for His Glory, let your heart echo the words of David in 2 Samuel 24:24 "I will not give to the LORD an offering that cost nothing"