“Knowing how susceptible we are to success’s siren call, God does not allow us to see, and therefore glory in, what is done through us. The very nature of the obedience He demands is that it be given without regard to circumstances or results.”
–Charles W. Colson

This flies against so much of what is ingrained in my head…that life is about results. Success is about results. Happiness is about results. Winning souls for God is about…results. Bearing fruit is about…results. Tangible, measurable results.

Colson reminds me it ain’t so. That don’t make it easy to hear.

Yes, I LOVE IT when someone tells me that something I wrote hit the sweet spot of what they needed to hear. Those words make my day. If I wrote my devotions and if no one said thank you, no one, I would hope that I would still send out these words. Therein lies the challenge in my walk, probably in yours. If we do not see the fruit of our labor of love for God, are we in the right place, doing the right thing? When just one person says “thank you”, is that not an encouragement that perhaps we are pleasing God?

Results tell me I am making a difference, one way or another. Without results, it can be difficult to know whether what I am doing is bearing any fruit. If my actions are not producing fruit, then am I bringing glory to God, and I should maybe be doing something else that would bring fruit, that would bring more glory to God.

SO, amidst my own questioning, I continued reading on after Colson’s quote, which appears on page 23 of his book Loving God. HELLO! As I read more of Colson’s words what I realized in my rambling to this point is that I was, by my nature, focused on the wrong word. I was defiant in my defense of “results”. I needed to be focused on the word “obedience”.

Moving beyond the initials words I quoted in isolation, Colson a bit later wrote this – “So, obedience is the key to real faith–the unshakable kind of faith so powerfully illustrated by Job’s life. Job lost his home, his family, his health, even his hope. The advice from friends was no help. No matter where he turned, he could find no answers to his plight. Eventually he stood alone. But though it appeared God had abandoned him, Job clung to the assurance that God is who He is. Job confirmed his obedience with those classic words of faith: ‘Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him.'”

Okay, here were the real kicker, Colson’s next words –
“This is real faith: believing and acting obediently regardless of circumstances or contrary evidence. After all, if faith depended on visible evidence, it wouldn’t be faith. ‘We walk by faith, not by sight,’ the apostle Paul wrote.”

Wow! Now I reread that initial quote and put in “faith” in place of “obedience”. Powerful.

In His service,
Keith