What happens when we get too comfortable in life? What happens when we resist the change God is calling us into? What happens when we settle for where we are instead of going where God is leading? We miss the opportunity of a lifetime. You have no idea what God has in mind for you if you would follow him fully. But we miss it because we’ve settled, we’re comfortable and we avoid the unknown. Here’s the kicker, we not only miss the opportunities God has for us, but we create an opportunity for disaster in our life. Our delay of obedience is an opportunity for the enemy to stir up trouble, and we all know the enemy is eager do some stirring in our lives!
In 2 Samuel chapter 11 we read of King David and his mighty fall. Now let’s remember who David is. David, the little shepherd boy who boldly fought the giant Goliath and because of his mighty faith and willingness to go, he won. Eventually little David worked himself all the way up to becoming King. David, always with a willingness to go.
God loves our willingness. He’s looking to bless the one who will boldly step up and say, “choose me, I will go.” That was David and we see how through his life God showed him favor and provided in supernatural ways in response to his willingness to go.
But now little shepherd boy David is King David and power has gotten into his head. Now, let’s not be too quick to judge, I’m pretty sure we all struggle with properly handling power. Remember when you were the new girl in the office willing to happily do any job that needed to be done with no complaint and now with your seniority you’ve gotten a little lazy and there are jobs below you. Your willingness to go, to work, and to serve has lessened. Remember when you were a newlywed and you danced through the house like a Disney character smelling the fresh laundry? Uhmmmm yeah, when’s the last time that happened, right? Now laundry is a dreaded chore that you HAVE to do.
That willingness in you that God so loves has grown a little dim, hasn’t it? You’re now too busy. There’s too much stress and pressure in your real life to listen to God’s prompting and just go. Our attitude of “choose me God, I will go” has turned into a “oh, please not me, I’m so busy.” We hunker low, hoping God will skim right over us and choose someone else for the work he has. But have we forgotten our willingness to go creates an undeniable favor over our lives and supernatural provision? Have we forgotten our unwillingness to go leaves the door open for the enemy to creep in and do his nasty stirring?
David’s people were at war. David should have been with his soldiers. His place was with them. 2 Samuel 11 verse 1 says “In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war, David sent Joab out with the king’s men and the whole Israelite army and David remained in Jerusalem.”
David was no longer willing to go. He lost his willingness to show up. He lost his fight. All the things that first set him on the path to his destiny, and now he has lost them.
No longer willing to go.
No longer willing to show up.
No longer willing to try.
Is that you this morning? You once had so much passion in you. You woke up at the first sound of the alarm ready to conquer the day … and now … not so much. You’ve gotten lazy and lax. Oh we can layer it with all kinds of flowery excuses that the outside world will buy, but deep down you know it’s still just an excuse of why you’re not doing what you know you should be doing.
Sadly, we can get by on half effort. We can survive, eat and pay the bills just going through the motions. But are there dangers in not going where you’re supposed to go and not doing what you’re supposed to be doing? Oh you bet there are. King David was supposed to be out with his men, the Israelite army, BUT DAVID REMAINED IN JERUSALEM. He didn’t go. He stayed. He wasn’t where he was supposed to be. And when we don’t go where we are supposed to go, we put ourselves in some dangerous positions.
While home, he walked on the roof of his palace and he saw a woman bathing, and he wanted her. He found out she was the wife of Uriah, one of his soldiers out fighting for him. He sent for her, he slept with her and she became pregnant. Now David found himself in a pickle, so he had her husband sent to the front lines of battle and killed.
Oh David, how did you get yourself in this mess? How did it all start? Oh yeah, HE DIDN’T GO WHERE HE WAS SUPPOSED TO GO. If he would have gone with his soldiers like he was supposed to, he would have never been on the roof of his palace to see this woman in the first place.
He lost his willingness to go and it created a huge mess in his life.
When you lose your willingness to go, it too will create a huge mess in your life.
Are you where you’re supposed to be? Are you doing what you’re supposed to be doing? Are you still listening for God’s direction? Do you still have a willingness to go? Or have you gotten comfortable and lazy? Sister, I promise you what God has in mind for your life is so much bigger and better than anything you could dream up on your own. He can be trusted. Your faithfulness and willingness will be richly rewarded.
Many, many years ago, my husband had worked hard and built a very successful business in Dallas. Just when the money was flowing in and the car was fancy, we felt God telling us to move to the desert. But we didn’t want to move to the desert. We didn’t want to leave behind what we had worked so hard to build. But out of faith, we went. I had envisioned immediate success once we moved. Isn’t that the way God works? Your willingness is immediately met with luxury and riches. Wow, I was wrong. Our willingness to go was met with hardship and rejection. Rebuilding our business was slow and miserable. We went from the mountaintop to some dark valleys. I was sorely disappointed in God’s crapy plan quite honestly. He took us away from our success to the desert to struggle? But what I didn’t know was God was lining up something so much more than business success for us. Our willingness to go had brought us exactly where we needed to be, just not for the reasons we imagined. You see, just a few miles from our new home in the desert, across the border into Mexico were two little girls in an orphanage. We were lead there to find them. We were lead there because God had a tremendous blessing in store for us for all the days of our lives. Gosh, what if we wouldn’t have been willing to give up what we had in Dallas to follow him to the desert? We would have never known what God had waiting for us. We would have missed it.
The same is true for each of us. God has something for us, but it probably won’t look like we imagined, nor will be as easy as we hoped. But if we will be faithful, if we will continue to be willing, God will lead us to a life we could have never imagined on our own.
Today, let’s ask God if we have lost our willingness to go? And if we have gotten comfortable, let us start off where we left the path of obedience and get busy doing the right thing again!