So many times in my walk with God I have heard His call and questioned it. I have failed to understand what He is asking of me and have missed out on wonderful opportunities as a result. We are bound to make mistakes, it is part of human nature, but listen here, there is nothing more painful than falling short of the call God has on your life. Think to a time where you had that small nudge from the Lord to do or say something and you let your flesh get in the way. It still stings a little doesn’t it? I know when I recall times I missed the mark in this way I can feel the pain just as fresh as it was the moment I wasn’t obedient.

We can choose two paths with these moments of short coming: learn or repeat. We can take into consideration what we did and how we can alter our behavior in the future, or we can neglect to seek a lesson out of our misstep and repeat the thing all over again next time. I think it would be wise to choose the first path, but in order to do so we must examine ourselves and let the Lord show us how we can do it differently next time.

Some great questions to ask yourself when you are mulling over the reason behind your failure to act: “What am I afraid of?” “Am I looking to please God or man?” “Do I fear God”?

When we do not obey our Father’s call on our life we miss out on blessings! I remember a time that I clearly heard God speak to me at a women’s conference. After he spoke, he nudged me to go talk with the speaker shortly after she was done presenting. She was greeting people at the bottom of the steps to the stage. I froze. I panicked. I was too afraid to go up and talk with her. I ran to someone else and asked for her opinion; I wondered if she thought God would really have me to do such a thing.

I did everything BUT what I was asked to do! Isn’t that just like our flesh to get so stinking messy? What an easy assignment I had been given! At the time you would have thought He asked me to address the entire room with a word when the reality was likely a very simple greeting was required in a very informal one on one conversation.

The sting of this all still pricks my heart today: I will never know what God had planned for that casual meeting. Had I realized she was a sister in Christ much like myself, just following Jesus the best way she knew how, I could have approached her with ease and even encouraged her in her walk to press on! Instead, I let fear and self doubt muddle up the waters of my walk for a moment; and in return I will remember my disobedience by the sting of the unknown.

I share this with the hope that it will encourage you. That you will see you are not alone in your missteps, mistakes, and misunderstandings. We all do it. With that said, we do need to learn from our mistakes so we don’t continue to repeat the same things over and over again.

I also want to encourage you to not beat yourself up over making a mistake. There were times in my life where I put so much pressure on myself to be perfect that I would throw myself at the cross over and over in shame for not doing something well. That is also not the heart of Christ and no Christian should be living in that type of condemnation. God cares deeply about his children and He does expect us to repent from our sin and to learn, but he absolutely does not want us beating ourselves up over a misstep! Jesus’ blood was way too precious a thing for us to reject forgiveness in that way! Repent for your actions, accept that God forgives you, and learn from your mistakes. Part of true repentance is turning away from sin. And yes, not listening to the Lord is sin!

Next time you hear His call, obey! It is much less painful than the alternative, I can promise you that ❤