The Cost of Saying Yes to God

A young woman in Lagos has been offered a partnership in her family’s thriving business—the dream she has nurtured since childhood. Yet the Lord has stirred her heart to leave everything and train as a missionary nurse in a rural community three hours away. Her family is bewildered. The salary is a fraction of what she could earn. There is no prestige, no security. She faces the question that has tested believers across the ages: Will I obey God when obedience costs me dearly?

Abraham faced this very test. God asked him to offer up Isaac—not merely a son, but the son of promise, through whom all the nations of the earth would be blessed. Isaac represented Abraham’s future, his legacy, his deepest hope. To obey meant to walk toward a mountain and lay down everything he loved. Yet Scripture tells us that Abraham “rose up early in the morning” (Genesis 22:3). There was no debate, no delay. He knew whom he served.

What gave Abraham such resolve? Faith. Not blind faith, but faith rooted in the character of God. Abraham had learned through decades that God keeps His word. He had seen the impossible become reality when Isaac was born. In Genesis 15:6, we read that “he believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness.” This foundation of belief enabled him to obey even when obedience demanded the unthinkable.

The Lord teaches us through Abraham’s example that true obedience often arrives at a crossroads. It asks: Do you trust My character more than your comfort? Do you believe My promises more than your present circumstances? In 1 Peter 1:7, Peter writes that our faith is “much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire.” Our obedience proves and strengthens our faith.

Yet notice something else: Abraham’s obedience was never meaningless suffering. God did not require the sacrifice of Isaac. At the critical moment, the Lord provided a ram caught in the thicket. Abraham called that place “Jehovah-jireh—the Lord will provide.” His willingness to obey opened his eyes to God’s sufficiency in ways that comfortable obedience never could.

If you are facing a costly decision—leaving a lucrative career for ministry, forgiving someone who wronged you deeply, speaking truth when silence is profitable, or standing alone for righteousness—remember Abraham. Ask yourself: Have I truly seen God’s faithfulness in my past? Do I believe His promises more than my fears? Will I rise up early, without hesitation, and do what He calls?

The reward of obedience is not always immediate comfort. But it is always the deepening of your relationship with God and the discovery that He is faithful, that He sees, and that He provides.

Lord, grant me the courage to obey You even when obedience costs me everything I hold dear.