Obedience

Genesis 6:22 (NIV) - "Noah did everything just as God commanded him."

Genesis 12:4 (NIV) - "So Abram left, as the Lord had told him ...."

Exodus 4:20 (NIV) - "So Moses took his wife and sons, put them on a donkey and started back to Egypt."

Jonah 3:3 (NIV) - "Jonah obeyed the word of the Lord and went to Nineveh."

Luke 22:42 (NIV) - "Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done."

Acts 5:29 (NIV) - "Peter and the other apostles replied: 'We must obey God rather than men!'"

Obedience is the key.

You may be at a point in your life and ministry where you are ready to throw in the towel. You may be drowning in stress, tension, frustration, and setbacks. You may be ready to hand off your responsibilities to someone else.

But is that what God wants from you?

God gave enormous, and seemingly overwhelming, challenges to Noah, Abram, Moses, Jonah, Jesus, and Peter and the other apostles. Noah, Abram, Jesus, and Peter and the other apostles showed immediate obedience. Moses and Jonah, each in their own way, didn't step up to the plate right away, with varying consequences, but in the end they both were obedient. In every case, obedience made the difference. In every case, obedience saved lives, blessed nations, brought freedom, brought salvation, and furthered God's work throughout the world.

It's the same for you and your ministry. You may be tired and ready to pack it in. But God still wants you to be obedient to Him. If He called you to be wherever you are, then He wants you to stay there, through thick and thin. Obedience to God is easy when things are going well. Obedience to God is hard when they are not.

Stay obedient. Stay in God's will. Persevere wherever you are. Don't throw in the towel! God isn't finished with you yet.