Reckless Obedience

reckless: heedless of danger or the consequences of one's actions

I heard something Charles Stanley said in one of his sermons, obey God and leave the consequences to Him, and it reminded me of how obedience to God is never as simple/difficult as we think it might be. On one hand, submitting to God and following His lead means that we exercise our faith and it grows stronger and stronger, building a good foundation for trust and obedience. On the other hand, submitting to God and following His lead means that we have to ignore a lot of the things we see play out physically and even mentally. There were two people in the bible who came to mind when I reflected on what it means to be recklessly obedient to God.

The first, Jonah, is one of my favourite stories in the bible as I usually feel like Jonah is me. Jonah, after receiving an instruction to deliver a warning to the people of Nineveh, decided that he would run away because He knew how compassionate and merciful God was. He had rationalised that God would forgive them and therefore there was no point in going to warn the people of Nineveh. Jonah should not have reasoned on God's behalf; there was a process of repentance the people of Nineveh needed to go through so that God would have mercy on them. God needed that message delivered, regardless of whether He would forgive them or not. How many times do we neglect to follow and instruction from God because we reason that God will do what God always does?

The second example was of Noah. Noah lived during a period of time where people had become so evil in their ways that God felt the only course of action was to reset and wipe the earth! Noah, being the righteous man that he was, received an instruction to do something that others would've mocked him for; build an ark when there was no sign of a situation that would require such a thing. But Noah trusted in God and followed every instruction given on how to build the ark. Whatever the consequences were, Noah seemingly left them to God and simply did as he was instructed and I believe this is the kind of obedience requires of us, even today. In a world where others are very quick to give unsolicited opinions and offer sometimes unwelcome perspectives, it's even more important to place ALL your trust in God.

Reckless obedience is about following God's lead very closely and doing things exactly as instructed. One thing about God, He is not afraid of details and there are several examples in the bible where God gave His prophets very specific instructions to follow and no details were spared. Rather than be impatient and act ahead of God, we need to learn to wait on God for the details He will always share and then act on these. Disobedience happens when we try to reason for God like Jonah did and take our own path to try to get where we think God wants us to get to. Think about the areas of your life where you haven't fully surrendered to God because you're afraid of what will happen if you don't act. Now speak to God about this area and surrender it to Him and leave it with Him. When the time is right, He will tell you what's next and it will all work out exactly as God intended; for our good!