At some point, my family had one small generating set for power supply in the house. One day at about 1am, I turned my side in bed and noticed that it had started drizzling. The Lord prompted me to go check the engine. I showed initial reluctance for two reasons. Firstly, before I went to bed, I had mandated one of the boys at home to switch it off at a particular hour. Secondly, going out to check would interrupt my sleep, and I did not want that to happen. After a little more prompting, I obeyed. To my surprise, the engine had not been switched off, and it was exposed to the drizzle. That would have possibly damaged it.
“The good life is only possible as we obey the Lord…Whenever you are finding hesitation in your bid to obey, be reminded that disobedience costs even more”
Eugene Peterson, in the Message Bible, carved our text in a beautifully – “If they obey and serve him, they’ll have a good, long life on easy street.” Eugene’s definition of success is having “a good, long life on easy street”. I do not suppose that he meant a successful life will not encounter any difficulty at all, only that there would be silver linings to those difficulties. The secret to the good, long life on easy street is obedience to the Lord. Disobedience and all forms of sins will introduce complications to any life. If truth be told, most of the difficulties we run into in life are a result of one form of disobedience or the other to the Lord. The good life is only possible as we obey the Lord. The reason why many people fail to obey the Lord is that they are busy counting the cost of saying yes. Whenever you are finding hesitation in your bid to obey, be reminded that disobedience costs even more.