First of all, I’m not a fan of mornings. Because I like to sleep. I’m not the guy who wakes up at 4 in the morning to get my day started. Maybe I’m just not that spiritual. If I have to I will, but I’m definitely not going to choose to. A few weeks ago I had an 8:30 meeting and  because it was a regular meeting on my schedule, I knew if I left at 8:10 I’d get there with a little time to spare. I ended up leaving my house at 8:13. 3 minutes late! Well, I guess in those 3 little minutes that’s when everyone in the entire town decides it’s time to head to work. And apparently they all work at the same place because I saw traffic in our town like I had never seen before. Not only that, but it seems that 8:13 is when the construction crews get started, but since they’re at work already, they’re not in much of a hurry to let you get through. AND, I never noticed how inconvenient those 25 mph school zones are but I left just late enough to catch the flashing lights letting me know I needed to slow down.  On the bright side, it gave me some time to create some new Christian cuss words. What shocked me the most was the fact that leaving 3 minutes later than I was supposed to, caused me to be 15 minutes late. 15 minutes late and got my day off to a really rough start. I was in a bad mood and had an uphill battle getting out of that. I was even more frustrated knowing if I would have left on time, when I knew I was supposed to leave, everything would have been different. Everything would have been fine.

But that got me thinking, doesn’t the same thing happens in our walk with Christ when it comes to obedience? Every one of us has a next step to take. Something God wants us to do. Because none of us are perfect. It’s what we call sanctification. The process of God leading us to become more like Jesus. In order to do that, we have to be obedient to what He’s telling us to do. Many of us know what He wants us to do, whether it is to stop doing something, start doing something, apologize to someone about something, confess something, or whatever else it is, you can fill in the blank. What we have a habit of doing is waiting. We know what God wants us to do, it’s very clear to us, but we hesitate. We hold off. We wait. We delay our obedience. For whatever the reason, most of the time it’s fear or just not wanting to. But we delay our obedience to God and I believe we cause more trouble or chaos in our life because of that. Just like when I waited 3 extra minutes to leave, there were so many negative effects because of that decision, the same thing happens when we wait to do what God is telling us to do. Ultimately, I believe delaying obedience delays victory.

I believe there are many people in this position right now. You know what God wants you to do, but you’re waiting. You’re scared. You’re not sure of how it will end if you just listen. Maybe you’re not sure of the steps in between. My goal here is simple. I want to get you moving. To show you, even if you’re scared it’s ok to obey and it’s more dangerous to stand still and delay your obedience. Here are 3 key things I believe are delayed when we delay our obedience.

      1. Delayed Blessings

I used to get so mad watching cartoons like Tom & Jerry and The Roadrunner. I thought Jerry was a jerk! Tom wasn’t innocent all the time, but there were plenty of episodes where Tom was minding his own business, just sleeping and Jerry would start trouble. You may not agree with me…But you’re wrong! Jerry would set traps for Tom. He would make something look so appealing, so tempting and act like he was Toms friend only to later pull back the curtain and reveal a 100-pound bulldog ready to attack.

At times, we act like God is doing the same thing with us. We act like we believe He is leading us somewhere only to watch us fail. Like the Roadrunner putting a door at the edge of a cliff for Wyle E. Coyote to run through only to fall off the edge. We have to get to the place where we believe God is not setting us up for failure. He’s not leading us to a place of defeat. He wants good things for us. In John 10:10 Jesus tells us, “I came to give life and give it to the full.” Do we really believe that? Do we really believe that God wants good things for us? I do! But I believe one of the primary reasons we haven’t experienced the fullness of life God has to offer is because we haven’t listened to how He’s telling us to attain it.

The longer we delay our obedience, the longer we delay experiencing the blessings God has for us. They are already there. As a Christian you are not fighting for victory, you’re fighting with victory. The blessings already exist, you may just have to take a step to walk into them.

    2. Delayed Joy

Can we just be honest for a second and admit that knowing God wants you to do something and knowing you’re not doing it is a miserable feeling? That’s a good thing, by the way, it’s called conviction. I’m so thankful for the Holy Spirit because of that, but knowing we’re being disobedient is a horrible feeling. There’s no joy in that. There’s actually a flood of negative emotions that come rolling in, right? In our delay, we give our spiritual enemy room to come in and cause us to start questioning things. Questioning God. Our salvation. His love for us. We start to believe that God operates like we do and He’s getting ready to punish us or kick us out of the family. Not to mention the extra layer of fear that brings along.

I think about Gideon (read about him here). The oppression the Israelites were under. There was no enjoying life for the Israelites during the season they were in. They were under constant attack. They were being robbed. Then God went to Gideon and told him they would be free from the oppression of the Midianites and Amalekites. All Gideon had to do was be obedient to what God told Him to do. It took some pretty heavy convincing from God, but Gideon was finally obedient. Afterward, there was no more oppression from the enemy. There was a joy in their life they hadn’t experienced in a long time.

God wants the same thing for you! Yes, what you’re facing may be scary. You may not know what’s going to happen. It may be bigger than you. But regardless what it is I can guarantee you it isn’t bigger than the God, your Father, who loves you and who wants joy to be experienced in your life. After all, joy is one of the fruits of the spirit. That means, the moment you gave your life to Jesus, joy was planted in your heart. You may not be feeling it right now, but God wants you to have it. That’s why He gave it to you. Delaying obedience delays the joy God intends for us.

3. Delayed Growth

I cannot really remember a time when God asked me to do something that was easy. Don’t you wish He’d just toss you a softball sometimes?  Ask me to go downtown and help little old ladies across the street. Or adopt a bunch of homeless puppies. Yeah, that’s a good one!  But no, it’s never really been something easy. It’s always stuff like, “Hey Aaron, move from Kentucky to Florida.” “Hey Aaron, I want you to start planting churches. Oh yeah, with no salary.”

Usually, when God reveals what He wants us to do, it strikes a little fear in us doesn’t it? Here’s what I want you to hear, that is OK. It’s ok to be a be afraid. When God asks you to do something, it’s going to be bigger than you. That means it should scare you. You should realize you can’t do it on your own. But I can tell you this, even though He’s never called me to something easy, the more I obey and step out in faith, the easier it gets to trust God and the greater my trust gets. Think of it like this, when you were little it was a bit scary to jump off of the high dive. It may have taken you quite a while. You may have even taken 7 or 8 trips to the end of the diving board before you eventually jumped off. But after you did it, you realized you could jump off and not get hurt, as long as you stopped landing on your stomach. So you did it again. Eventually, jumping off the high dive was no problem at all because your confidence grew. You knew you were going to survive.

The same is true with God. The more you step out in faith, the more your faith in God grows. Sure, you may be terrified right now but it’s time to take a step. It’s time give God the opportunity to show you He can and will come through for you. The only way to grow in your faith is to use your faith. I know the opposite feeling all to well. Feeling like you’re all alone. Feeling like God has abandoned you or set you up to fail. He hasn’t and you’re not alone. I love what Numbers 10:33-34 tells us. 33So they set out from the mountain of the Lord and traveled for three days. The ark of the covenant of the Lord went before them during those three days to find them a place to rest. 34The cloud of the Lord was over them by day when they set out from the camp.

The ark contained three different things; 10 Commandments, Aaron’s rod, and manna. Manna represented God’s provision and presence. So these verses tell us, not only did God go ahead of them but also hovered over them. God is not calling you to a place He hasn’t already been and He’s not leaving your side while on your journey. Stepping out in faith will not lead to failure, it will lead to an increase in your faith. Do you want to grow in faith? Then obey.

If He’s asking you to do something, it’s because there is a victory on the other side of your obedience. So, what’s your next step? What’s He asking you to do? What obedience are you delaying? It’s time to go because you’re not really delaying obedience. You’re delaying victory.