When it's too late...

Sometimes because of our decisions we miss out on God's best for us. It's not that He doesn't want to bless us... It's just that the window for that particular opportunity has closed.

What God calls us to do always requires faith (Hebrews 11:6).  And when we respond in disobedience instead of faith, we don't get to see the results that obedience would have produced.

Read Numbers 14:39-45

In this passage, the Israelites disobeyed.  Then they decide to make up for lost time, and obey God "after the fact", even though He told them it was too late to see the blessing for obedience. The results were disastrous!

I was supposed to go on a mission trip between my first and second years of Bible school. I didn't go (read: disobeyed), then asked God for forgiveness.

He forgave me, but every time I would talk with God about what I should have learned there or what connections I should have made there, He was silent. One time I felt Him speak in my heart that I would never get to know what I missed until I got to heaven. That blessing only comes with obedience.

Had I obeyed, maybe I would have discovered years earlier that I was called to be a missionary and a lead pastor. I could have been better prepared for what God had called me to.

Who knows what would be different today?  I just know that I don't want to make the same mistake again! Let's be like Caleb and obey the first time (Numbers 14:24)... And obey immediately!