Blog 11: Obedience Over Ease
This year was full of learning, but not in an academic way. I spent my first full year of being a Christian living life in that context. I learned a lot about the Lord, His church, and how the two interact with each other. What I’m most grateful for is the Lord’s imparting of wisdom on my life. Life has thrown unexpected challenges and struggles at me this year, and unusually, I’ve been unlike myself and let them glide off of me. In the fall of 2024, I struggled much with doubt and when I would get to see fruit of a changed life. Fruit that didn’t feel manufactured or grown from impure motives. While it’s not wrong to desire those things, in fact, the Bible even says blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.”
Matthew 5:6
Notice how it doesn’t say blessed are those who are righteous. Of course we know both can be true, and God is both righteous and blessed. We are already declared righteous in Christ, but we still hunger and thirst for practical holiness. If we were already perfectly sanctified, we wouldn’t feel that hunger. What need do we have if we are perfect in everything we do?
I digress. This year I was baptized, I lost my job, and I graduated. What has stood out to me the most is not my own ability, but God’s ability to stay near to me as I push away and turn towards Him. His faithfulness has stood out to me the most this year. Even now, it echoes in my search for a job in ministry. I believe the Lord has placed this desire on my heart very shortly after I was saved. I love people, and I care deeply. Naturally it makes sense, why wouldn’t I want to get into ministry? It seems like the perfect fit.
I believe there is also wisdom when it comes to ease, especially in this life. I personally believe that if ease determined God’s will, the Bible would fall apart. The Scriptures are full of struggle, adversity, and pain. So if the true stories we read about in the Bible are God’s will, we cannot come to the conclusion that ease determines God’s will. In fact, it may be the opposite. On the other hand, sometimes God’s will may be easy for us. I think the right, absolute truth is that God’s will cannot be determined by what comes with ease and what does not come with ease. Therefore, we cannot believe we have any ability to figure out God’s will on our own. We must simply cling to His side, follow His commandments, and pray. It’s obedience that makes His will clearer.
“During those many days the king of Egypt died, and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God. And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. God saw the people of Israel and God knew.” Exodus 2:23-25
In Exodus 2, we read that God heard the groaning of His people. He remembered His covenant. He saw His people and He knew. What stood out to me the most is where it says God knew. He knew about that suffering. He didn’t “remember” in a traditional sense. He knew about it already. Saying that He knew implies that He already had a plan in the first place. It also implies that He was watching the whole time. In the original language, “to see” means to see with recognition or concern. “To see” is also used in the context of an intent to act. God saw Hagar in Genesis 16, and God saw the corruption in Genesis 6. God knows what we go through on a daily basis because He is watching. In fact, He sees it with full knowledge long before it ever unfolds in time. He sees our failures to live rightly, when we lie to someone, when someone says something unkind to us, when we try so hard to follow Him and somehow manage to blatantly sin in the process. When Scripture says God has “seen” an issue, it marks the moment He moves to act. He is so faithful that I can be confident He is working on our behalf to guide and direct us. God does not require my belief to become powerful in order to act. He is already powerful and faithful on His own. He does not depend on my belief to be who He is either. God does not wait for my belief to become powerful enough to move Him. He just acts.
“Then the Lord said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. And now, behold, the cry of the people of Israel has come to me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them. Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.” But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?” He said, “But I will be with you, and this shall be the sign for you, that I have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.” Exodus 3:7-12
“For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees?”
Romans 8:24
If He did, He would not be God. If He did, He would not be perfect and good, and humanity would be in deep deep trouble. We would be crushed under the weight of having to sustain reality with our faith. Instead, in His faithfulness, I can trust and depend on Him to act in love, righteousness, and mercy in the same way He has before. This does not mean that God is predictable, but in His faithfulness He can perform what is seemingly unpredictable. It does mean that God is not unpredictable in His character and constant in His covenant. For nothing is impossible with God. What the world cannot do, God can do with His mighty hand and mighty Word.
We know that the Lord is coming back, but we have not known that He is coming back by sight yet. We see it now but we will see it with our eyes soon. Who hopes in what he sees? God has already come down to deliver the people of Israel by preparing Moses. He told Moses in Exodus 3, “He knows,” not “I found out.” The cry of His people had come before Him not as a surprise, but a recognition. Their cries have come before Him, and now behold. God has seen the injustice and He is at work to save them from their suffering. In verse 11, Moses is not being humble. He is doubting the Lord’s ability to use Moses to accomplish His work. It was unbelief in God’s sufficiency. God’s response was not reassurance of Moses’s ability, but assurance of His own presence. He said, “I will be with you.” In other words, “I got you, just go.”
God is prepared and buttressed with His own wisdom to act. What He wills will be done. None can go up against His hand. No power on earth, heaven, or hell can. He is powerful, wise, faithful, all-knowing, all-seeing, kind, merciful, and fully prepared with care for His people all of the time. If God can and has saved the people enslaved in Egypt, who is there to say that He can’t do the same for you? To say He can’t is to lie. To say He can’t is to say He is not faithful. To say He can’t is to say He is not watching. He is here with us and He is on the move.
So the wisdom, when it comes to ease, don't assume it's God's will. Instead, trust in the faithfulness of the God who sees, knows, and acts. Whether His will feels heavy or light, He never changes, and that is enough.
Scripture References: Matthew 5:6; Genesis 6:5–7; Genesis 16:7–13; Exodus 2:23–25; Exodus 3:7–12; Exodus 4:10–14; Psalm 139:1–6, 13–16; Isaiah 46:9–10; Luke 1:37; Romans 5:1; Romans 8:24–25; Philippians 3:12–14; Acts 14:22; John 16:33; 2 Timothy 2:13; Hebrews 13:8.