What If I Obeyed?

What would my life look like if I obeyed God in all things, immediately without hesitation? Would my husband have a different level of joy if I did not first bump heads with him and then repent but rather find the shortest path to peace and mutual understanding no matter our discussion? Would my parenting changed if I did not react to my children first out of my own fear of failing as a mother or out of anger and irritation at the unending list of things to do for my little ones? What if I parented my children always in light of eternity and my duty to steward their lives in such a way that it makes it easier for them to see and thus follow God’s direction for their lives? Would anything be different.

What if I obeyed the prompting to forgive and harbor no malice towards anyone without struggling with God about it? What if I forgave with the same ease with which God forgives me? Would my list of people who I have to “love from a distance” disappear to be replaced by a list of people I joyfully embrace in prayer and in every other way commanded by God?

There is such a longing in me to live a radical life for Christ and the sake of the Gospel but a part of me fears that the life I desire will not be made manifest until my obedience to God reaches a radical place as well. Until I am known privately, publicly and in heaven for quick and deliberate obedience to everything that the Lord commands, it seems to me that the best mly little life will ever account for is that of a “regular Christian.” I do not want a participation ribbon Christianity. I want a walk with Christ that makes my Heavenly Father beam in joy. My joy is full when I know I have made heaven proud.

Every disobedience to the Lord’s command has resulted in heartbreak, either as the consequences of my own sin or the heaviest of conviction as the Lord chastised me as His daughter. If I had obeyed the Lord back in 1993 and yielded totally to His prompting, I may have saved myself an encounter that almost took my life. If I obeyed in 2000, as the age of 17, I would have kept myself from creating ungodly ties that would rival for the Lord’s attention in my life. If I had obeyed in 2002, I would have saved myself another attempt on my life. If I had obeyed in 2005, I would have surrendered to a life of leading students to Christ instead of living in lukewarm Christianity. If I had obeyed in 2006, I would have never have gotten on the slippery slope that led me to a life completely devoid of God’s leadership and wholly consumed by flesh. If I had obeyed in 2007, I would never have created the ties that had to be broken before my marriage to my husband. I would not be the point of contention in someone else’s happily ever after. If I had obeyed back in 1993, I would have saved myself 16 YEARS of disobeying God’s will for my love life.

Now that I am finally and fully in Christ, what would this life look like if I obeyed the Lord promptly and immediately, without first having to fight with myself about what the Lord is instructing me to do? Who would I have led to Christ by now if I was living the life of radical obedience to which the Lord has called me? Whose marriage would I have impacted for good if I am known FIRST as a wife who obeys God and second, as one who honors her husband? Which of the young people around me would have been encouraged to a life of surrender to Christ, if I had lived a transparent and sold out life to Christ as a teenager?

What would happen from today henceforth if I obey God quickly and wholly, the first time?