The Challenge of Walking in Obedience and Faith

There are times when you say, “Yes” and pay an immediate price before you ever see what it produces. I said one of those yeses a few years back. It meant setting aside a project I loved, one into which I had invested significant time and energy. But by walking in obedience, I sensed clearly that God was redirecting me toward something else entirely. Something that made less sense on paper or even in conversation when answering the question of “why” from others.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I didn’t say yes gracefully. In fact, I pitched what some might consider a toddler temper tantrum. When I was done with my little hissy fit, I did eventually say yes. Slowly. Reluctantly. With more than a little internal negotiating along the way. But I said it.

And that closed the door on my six years of leading in women’s ministry. A calling that had filled me with a tremendous amount of joy, and a genuine sense of purpose. But God made it clear that my time there was only for a season. He had something much better in store. Of course, He didn’t tell me I’d have to go through a bit of refining fire before I’d see it.

But I still point back to who I became on the other side of that obedience when the next hard yes shows up at my door.

Why Walking in Obedience Feels Risky

Here’s something I bet nobody has told you about walking in obedience. It often feels indistinguishable from walking off a cliff. At least at first.

Because obedience, real obedience, usually asks you to move before you can see the full picture. Before you see the bridge that appears underneath your feet. It asks you to trust the relationship more than you trust your own ability to calculate the outcome. And for those of us who like to have a plan, those who find comfort in knowing what’s coming, that ask can feel enormous.

But Psalm 90:17 reiterates something important: “Establish the work of our hands.”

You can only pray that prayer from a posture of surrender. You can’t ask God to establish your work while simultaneously white-knuckling control of every outcome. Walking in obedience means releasing the ledger and trusting the relationship.

What Walking in Obedience Actually Built

That hard yes I mentioned? The one where I set aside the project I loved? Well, it opened a door I never would have found if I’d stayed where I was comfortable.

I won’t tell you it was immediate or obvious. For several years, it just felt like loss. The new direction was slower to take shape than I wanted, and there were plenty of mornings where I questioned whether I’d heard God correctly. That new direction even took me and my family to an entirely different state and church.

But walking in obedience had built a much deeper trust in me during those years that I didn’t fully recognize until later. Those extremely difficult steps led to a track record of God’s faithfulness in the middle of uncertainty. A quiet confidence that when He asks me to move, He is already present in the place He’s asking me to go.

Proverbs 3:5-6 became very personal during that season: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.” That straightening doesn’t always happen on your timeline. But it does happen.

Walking in Obedience as an Act of Love

The FAVOR theme reminds us this month that obedience isn’t subservience. It’s relationship. It’s the natural response of a heart that has experienced God’s goodness and chooses to keep trusting it even when the path isn’t clear.

Walking in obedience is one of the most profound ways we say to God, I trust You more than I trust my own plan. And in my experience, that posture, more than any strategy or effort, positions us to receive and recognize His favor in our lives.

Join the Conversation

Is there a hard yes sitting in front of you right now? Something God has been nudging you toward that you’ve been negotiating around?

Spend a few minutes journaling or recording a voice memo finishing this: “The yes I’ve been hesitating on is _____, and what’s holding me back is _____. But what I know about God’s faithfulness is _____.” Sometimes naming it out loud is the first step toward actually saying it.