“God, please help me learn to be obedient.”
Being under the authority of someone has been somewhat of a challenge for me my entire life. Growing up, yeah I had rules, but I pretty much did what I wanted. Even at my recent jobs, I like to say I was somewhat spoiled as an employee and got away with a lot. So I’ve had a few struggles when being told I have to do a certain task. Don’t get me wrong, we are treated like adults on the race and have lots of freedom, but like anything else in the world we have a few rules or things we’re asked to do to make things run smoothly and for our safety. Even though I understand all this, it’s very hard for me to do things whenever I’m being told to do it by others.
I’ve realized that even when God calls me to do something, I often refuse to do it because I don’t feel like it. So I asked God to help me be obedient, even when I absolutley don’t want to do it. (Literally laughing out loud right now.) The Lord is so funny.
So in the Dominican Republic we were able to help our hosts with some tasks around their home. Team tent was told to dig some trenches for the plumbing pipes that ran along the side of the hill next to the house. The intention was to eventually put the pipes undergroud so the goats wouldn’t step on them and break them. “Alright, cool,” I thought. “I’m not a plumber, I have no idea what I’m doing, this could get dangerous very quickly because we’re standing on a slope and it’s about to start pouring rain, but I’m going to be obedient.” So we dug these trenches for a few days. Sweet. We’re done.
We went out for work one day and were asked to fill the holes back up that we had just dug.
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Yep.
That’s the moment I was like, “Alright God, what the what?” He said, you asked for help to be obedient. So even though YOU think this process was pointless and it wasn’t very fun at times, it definitely had a purpose. You did what was asked of you. You were obedient. That’s all I needed from you. “Ohhhhhhh. haha. Good one, God.”
Overall, I’m thankful the Lord used that process to break down my pride and learn to do what is asked of me. I think of these days a lot whenever my feathers are getting ruffled because someone’s “telling me what to do.” I especially think about it whenever the Lord is asking me to do something and I may think it’s stupid or pointless. Whether I think I have all control, or it’s annoying whenever I feel like someone has control over me, it doesn’t matter because HE has all the control. I just have to trust that and walk in obedience to Him.
So thank you Lord for answered prayer, and thank you for the beautiful fruit that comes from saying yes! You’re awesome, God.
