Obedience Even When it Hurts
by: Gary Palmer
October 13, 2026
“Trust in the LORD with all your heart,
And lean not on your own understanding;
In all your ways acknowledge Him,
And He shall direct your paths.”
Jeremiah 34-35
In these two chapters it becomes apparent that religious observances and religious works are not what God wants from us. With God obedience is paramount. Obedience in its simplest form is really faith and faith is trusting that God's plan for us is good and perfect. But it is not a guarantee that life will always be easy.
It is not.
Sometimes God calls us to obey Him in experiences that hurt. Sometimes what God allows us to experience is a long process that ultimately forms us into the shape of His vision for us and of us. We often talk about God's vision “for” us in the context of what He is doing in our lives, but we rarely, if ever, consider God's vision “of” us, how He sees us and how He wants us to see us.
In his daily devotion My Utmost for His Highest, Oswald Chambers wrote, “God gives us a vision, and then He takes us down to the valley to batter us into the shape of that vision. It is in the valley that so many of us give up and faint. Every God-given vision will become real if we will only have patience.”
Patience even in the ordinary sense is tough, but for many, maybe most, of us patience with obedient faithfulness to God’s will is tougher for the simple reason that God’s will is often in conflict with what we want for ourselves.
We have our vision for our future and we have our plans for it and we hold on to it tenaciously because we think we know what is best for our lives. But sometimes our plans become our idols and God despises the worship of anything but Himself. It hurts when He requires us to tear down the things we hold on to apart from Him because so much of what must be torn down is personal. But we must give up everything, including anything that stands between us and God in complete humble surrender. When we do, God blesses our obedience.
Prayer
Lord, search my heart and expose every place where I have called something “my plan” that You have never asked me to hold on to. Forgive me for the times I have obeyed You only when obedience was convenient, comfortable, or aligned with what I wanted.
Deliver me from the idolatry of my own vision. Tear down anything I have placed above You; even the dreams, relationships, ambitions, expectations, and plans that are precious to me. Give me the courage to surrender what I keep trying to control.
When Your will hurts, keep me from running. When the process is long, keep me from growing bitter. When I cannot understand what You are doing, teach me to trust who You are. Do not allow me to abandon Your will simply because it conflicts with mine.
Lord, I would rather lose what I want and remain in Your will than gain everything I desire and lose intimacy with You. Shape me in the valley. Break what needs to be broken, remove what needs to be removed, and form me into the person You have called me to become.
Let my obedience prove that I trust You,not merely when You bless me, but when You ask me to surrender. I lay down my vision for my future and submit myself to Your vision for me. You are Lord, and Your will is better than mine. Amen.
Worship: I Surrender- Hillsong Worship
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Sometimes God calls us to obey Him in experiences that hurt. Sometimes what God allows us to experience is a long process that ultimately forms us into the shape of His vision for us and of us.