How does my disobedience to God hurt me? - Obedience - TouchPoints

Deuteronomy 3:26“But the Lord was angry with me because of you, and he would not listen to me. ‘That’s enough!’ he declared. ‘Speak of it no more.’”

2 Samuel 22:27, 42“To the pure you show yourself pure, but to the crooked you show yourself shrewd. . . . They looked for help, but no one came to their rescue. They even cried to the Lord, but he refused to answer.”

Micah 3:4“Then you beg the Lord for help in times of trouble! Do you really expect him to answer? After all the evil you have done, he won’t even look at you!”

Disobedience to God hinders prayer.

Hosea 4:16“Israel is stubborn, like a stubborn heifer. So should the Lord feed her like a lamb in a lush pasture?”

Disobedience to God separates us from his guidance.

Ezekiel 18:24“However, if righteous people turn from their righteous behavior and start doing sinful things and act like other sinners, should they be allowed to live? No, of course not! All their righteous acts will be forgotten, and they will die for their sins.”

A desire to disobey God routinely will negate past righteous deeds.

1 Timothy 1:18-20Timothy, my son, here are my instructions for you, based on the prophetic words spoken about you earlier. May they help you fight well in the Lord’s battles. Cling to your faith in Christ, and keep your conscience clear. For some people have deliberately violated their consciences; as a result, their faith has been shipwrecked. Hymenaeus and Alexander are two examples. I threw them out and handed them over to Satan so they might learn not to blaspheme God.

A pattern of deliberately disobeying God renders us unable to hold true to our faith.

Ezekiel 20:13-15“But the people of Israel rebelled against me, and they refused to obey my decrees there in the wilderness. They wouldn’t obey my regulations even though obedience would have given them life. They also violated my Sabbath days. So I threatened to pour out my fury on them, and I made plans to utterly consume them in the wilderness. But again I held back in order to protect the honor of my name before the nations who had seen my power in bringing Israel out of Egypt. But I took a solemn oath against them in the wilderness. I swore I would not bring them into the land I had given them, a land flowing with milk and honey, the most beautiful place on earth.”

Disobedience to God forfeits God’s best for us.

Numbers 20:12But the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not trust me enough to demonstrate my holiness to the people of Israel, you will not lead them into the land I am giving them!”

Disobedience to God limits our future opportunities.

Exodus 16:20But some of them didn’t listen and kept some of it until morning. But by then it was full of maggots and had a terrible smell. Moses was very angry with them.

Leviticus 26:14-16“If you do not listen to me or obey all these commands . . . I will punish you.”

Hebrews 2:1So we must listen very carefully to the truth we have heard, or we may drift away from it.

God seeks to keep us away from sin and trouble, and that is best accomplished when we listen to his voice and obey his commands. Refusing to do that is like shutting down our spiritual immune system. When we lose touch with God, we lose touch with the one who gives us the immunity to withstand the onslaught of sin.