And the cost is...

Understand, therefore, that the Lord your God is indeed God. He is the faithful God who keeps his covenant for a thousand generations and lavishes his unfailing love on those who love him and obey his commands. (Deuteronomy 7-9 NLT)

Obedience comes at a price, but it also carries a huge blessing. No one can say obedience doesn't 'cost' them something. It usually means we lay down something and take up something else in its place. If we think obeying God's decrees is going to be easy-peasy just because we said yes to Jesus, we might want to rethink that one! 

Obedience might cost us some of our relationships. What? Yup, it could mean we pull away from some that aren't helping us be built up in the Lord and are actually pulling us away time and time again. Didn't Jesus say we were to love the sinner? Yup, but he never said we needed to allow them to continue to be influential in our lives!

Obedience might cost us time and energy. When we follow Jesus closely, we actually find we need to carve out very specific time each day to just spend with him. Why does this matter? It is the time we spend with him that helps us to see clearly when our priorities are not matching his, or our desires are taking us in the wrong direction. Time invested with him is never wasted time!

Obedience might cost us our pride. We might have to stop being so doggone bullheaded about some things we thought were 'right' for us and lay them down. Pride gets in the way of obedience 100% of the time. It makes excuses for why we can't do what God asks of us. Once we finally realize that pride is keeping us away from God's presence and his blessings, we might just reconsider how hard we want to hold onto that stubborn streak of disobedience.

Obedience cost Jesus everything. He laid down his life in obedience to the will of his Father, not so we could have an 'easy-peasy' walk with him, but so we could actually draw near to the holiness of God. The more we see the 'price' he paid on our behalf, the more we might just be willing to put forth the effort in our own lives to move away from our stubbornness and disobedience. Prioritize obedience in your life and you are likely to see the results of it are amazing. Just sayin!