After Obedience – What?
And straightway He constrained His disciples to get into the ship,
and to go to the other side… .” – Mark 6:45-52We are apt to imagine that if Jesus Christ constrains us, and we obey
Him, He will lead us to great success. We must never put our dreams
of success as God’s purpose for us; His purpose may be exactly the
opposite. We have an idea that God is leading us to a particular end,
a desired goal; He is not. The question of getting to a particular
end is a mere incident. What we call the process, God calls the end.What is my dream of God’s purpose? His purpose is that I depend on
Him and on His power now. If I can stay in the middle of the turmoil
calm and unperplexed, that is the end of the purpose of God. God is
not working towards a particular finish; His end is the process –
that I see Him walking on the waves, no shore in sight, no success,
no goal, just the absolute certainty that it is all right because I
see Him walking on the sea. It is the process, not the end, which is
glorifying to God.God’s training is for now, not presently. His purpose is for this
minute, not for something in the future. We have nothing to do with
the afterwards of obedience; we get wrong when we think of the
afterwards. What men call training and preparation, God calls the
end.God’s end is to enable me to see that He can walk on the chaos of my
life just now. If we have a further end in view, we do not pay
sufficient attention to the immediate present: if we realize that
obedience is the end, then each moment as it comes is precious.