Have you ever felt God leading you to do something difficult? Did you turn around and ignore Him, or did you follow His ways? Throughout our lives, God will call us to do some things that we just don’t want to do and we turn away, regardless of how good it will be in the end. But we don’t know the future, do we?

This last week, my church hosted their Children’s Festival in the park (which is basically a Vacation Bible School), and the theme was all about walking with God. The kids learned about God’s commandments, loving Him with a holy, reverent fear, and walking with Him where He leads. 

Bible characters were brought up in the lessons. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego followed God into the fire, Joshua marched around Jericho, and Ananias obeyed God’s command to heal Paul’s blindness. Those were all tough instructions to follow! The men here could have thrown their hands up and walked away.

The ultimate obedience, however, was Jesus dying on the cross for our sins. Jesus didn’t have to obey God either. In fact, He was so overwhelmed with this, that he was sweating blood in the Garden of Gethsemane, and asked for this to be taken away. 

But it wasn’t. 

And He still chose to do it. 

I’m thankful too, because if He hadn’t, we would still be a slave to our sin. But because Jesus did obey God, we get to go to Heaven to be with Him someday and have the Holy Spirit living inside of us. Good things happened to each of those people who listened to God’s words and followed His leading. (Note that I said someday.)

Each of God’s instructions to those men were incredibly hard, and their lives weren’t all sunshine and roses immediately. Not to say that His instructions are always tough. Sometimes they’re exciting or easy to do. But it’s good to note that, even though it’s hard now, good will come out of it if we just keep going. Remember, He will stay by our side through thick and thin. He was in the fire, after all, with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and they didn’t burn.

Another theme throughout VBS was the topic of surrendering. Laying our plans, hopes, and dreams in front of God and letting Him orchestrate our lives for the better. Because, face it, we’re only human. Sometimes our plans aren’t that great. 

God knows our future. He knows what good things are in store for us later, so we can trust that He has a plan for our lives, and it’s going to be good, even if it seems hard to follow now. 

The next time God calls you to do something hard, will you follow Jesus? 

(And remember, He’ll be with you, even in the fire.)