Don’t Fear the Results of Obedience

There I was, walking into my kitchen, making coffee. I had just graduated from college, gotten my own place, and now I had my first visitors over in my new apartment. And I was freaking out.

“What if they don’t enjoy it here? What if they don’t ever want to come back? What if word gets out that my house is lame and no one ever wants to come here? What if they just think I’m weird? What if I’m not hospitable enough?”

These were the thoughts that were racing through my mind as I scooped the coffee. And granted, I’m a little weird. When people come over, I make a plan to sing together. (I remember the first time my parents came to visit, we sat in my little downstairs apartment living room and sang hymns). I like to plan to talk about the Bible when people come over. We eat, we sing, we read, we talk. It’s a blast!

But my mind was filled with anxious thoughts this night. I had been studying about what God had said about the home, and I was excited. But I was nervous. “Show hospitality to one another without grumbling” (1 Peter 4:9). “Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality” (Rom 12:13). “Your statutes have been my songs in the house of my sojourning” (Psalm 119:54). These are the things that I was convinced of, but I was afraid that people wouldn’t want to come back, and I’d ruin the privilege of using my home. But this beautiful word from the Lord came to me in that moment:

“But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing” (James 1:25).

I was reminded that God always gives the blessing to the one who looks to His word and acts. And I don’t mean #blessed, too blessed to be stressed nonsense. I mean that whatever God gives us for our obedience is the blessing. And I don’t need to worry about the outcome of my obedience, I just need to be obedient. If God had used that night to ruin all chances of anyone ever coming back (which He didn’t), then I could trust that God had accomplished exactly what He wanted through my obedience.

And this is where the lesson is. We need to stop worrying about things that are above our pay-grade. I’m not smart enough, strong enough, wise enough, rich enough to carry the burden of responsibility for achieving perfect results for my actions. But God is. He has not asked us to be concerned with our fruitfulness, but our faithfulness. We don’t need to fear the results of our obedience. We just need to obey, and allow God to show His power through our weakness.

©Jacob Crouch 2022, 2024

*The picture at the top is exactly the opposite of those early meals at my house. Chaos, mix-matched plates, always red beans and rice, but tons of fun.