consequences.

"obey God and leave all the consequences to Him."

how many times have i heard dr. stanley say those words? more than i can possibly count. he preached on that "life principle" last sunday. i thought i'd heard it and thought about it enough to where i knew totally what it meant. but there is something about that phrase that just hit me this week. yeah, we know that there are consequences for when we do wrong, when we make the wrong decision, when we slip up and say things we don't mean, when we don't do what's been asked of us. "we reap what we sow, more than we sow, later than we sow" (another dr. stanly-ism). it's like a law of life. and then we also know that when we walk in obedience, God promises that our lives will be blessed, that He will use that for His kingdom, to make Himself known.

but one thing i've never thought of is this... the consequences that come along with our obedience belong to Him, not us! example- i have a friend that is adopting. she and her husband just found out that there is a baby available if they want him. God told them to say yes, even though they don't have the means yet to fully pay for the process. once they were obedient in their response, it's totally His responsibility to come up with that money and provide. there are other steps of obedience that they may have to follow in before they completely get the money, like spending and saving wisely. but if obedience is constant, God still holds full responsibility. another example- going onto the mission field. the majority of people i've met who go to the mission field do not have the means to support themselves for that journey. they've acted in obedience in answering the call, so God's responsible, of course, for creating the means. but every single step in their life will be another call to obedience so that God can keep full responsibility of that consequence.

so in every action, every word, every decision, every step of life that we take, there is automatically a consequence whether good or bad, hard or easy, happy or sad; and someone has to take responsibility for that consequence. isn't it comforting to know that as long as we walk in obedience every day of our lives, that responsibility lies fully on God? kind of makes you breath a little easier when you know you've been obedient, huh?