Delayed obedience is disobedience. Our God is a god of details. When he tells us to do something, it’s not just about the action, it’s about the timing.
The mark we’re aiming for is constantly moving. It’s not a stationary target. So when God says, “shoot the arrow now”, but you delay your action and shoot your arrow later, the target has already moved and you hit nothing. Wasted shot.
Imagine bird hunting. You see the bird flying, there’s your shot, but you wait 5 minutes to pull the trigger. Why are you waiting? You’re planning, you’re researching, you’re seeking to gather all the details, you’re talking about it. How ridiculous that 5 minutes later you pull the trigger shooting at where the bird WAS in the sky, but is no longer there. You can’t get frustrated that you missed the shot when you delayed your action.
For someone listening today, God has said NOW, but you’ve still been waiting. That’s a problem. You’re trying to make it perfect when God never asked you for perfection, he only asked you for obedience. And the timing for obedience is immediate.
Imagine if you told your dog, “sit”. Instead of sitting he just runs wild. Imagine 3 weeks later you find your dog in the woods and he’s sitting. You wouldn’t celebrate that. Him sitting later is not obedience. No, he just got tired of running.
God is looking for a girl with a heart that is fully committed to him in obedience with not only what to do, but when to do it. 2 Chronicles 16:9, “The eyes of the Lord search the whole earth in order to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him.” A fully commitment is not only obedience in action, but obedience in timing. And here’s the wild thing – if you will just commit to God in action and in timing, then he has promised to give you the strength you need. Read that scripture again. The eyes of the Lord search the whole earth (he’s looking, searching, checking every one of us), and he’s looking to strengthen those whose hearts are FULLY committed to him. Supernatural strength is yours when you commit to God’s details and trust his timing.
God is the god of details … you are not. The details are his, not yours. Jesus said in Matthew 10:30, “The very hairs on your head are all numbered.” That’s a detail God knows – he literally knows precisely how many hairs you have on your head at this very moment. But that is NOT a detail he gives you or asks you to be concerned about. If you tried to count your own hairs, you would go insane. But God holds that detail with no effort.
What details are you obsessing over that simply are not yours to know? What details are you delaying over that are causing your disobedience? God said do it, and you may very well get around to doing it once you’re satisfied with your understanding of the details, but God is not impressed by that. You’re as good as that dog who ran wild for 3 weeks when told to sit. Later isn’t good enough. You’re missing the timing because you’re caught up in the details.
The details belong to God, and because they belong to him, you can trust him with them. How hard is it for you to say this: “God, I trust you with the details. I don’t have to know to go.”
There’s a super famous story in Mark chapter 7 about a miraculous power move of Jesus. Jesus was teaching a crowd of thousands and thousands of people in a very remote place. The crowd had been there all day listening to Jesus. Now, it’s beginning to get late in the day and Jesus’ helpers, his 12 friends the disciples, are thinking about dinner. They’re hungry. The crowd is hungry. There’s no food here. So, Jesus’ friends suggest to him that he end for the day and send everyone away so they c...