Love or Fear: The Difference Between Hitting or Missing the Mark

Jesus Christ will not force me to obey Him…But if I obey Jesus Christ in the seemingly random circumstances of life, they become pinholes through which I see the face of God. —Oswald Chambers^[1]

Imagine the peace from being surrounded and saturated with the perfect love of your Heavenly Father, and therefore, wanting to obey him. Not obeying him out of performance, but out of love. Remember fear fuels performance.

But love compels obedience.

Imagine entrusting the outcome to a Heavenly Father simply because you know his outcome will lead to the best life possible. That, my friend, is the gateway into the deepest riches of the flow of the Kingdom among us.

Obedience is secondary to trust. For the life that is truly life, trust must be primary. Why? Because obedience for the wrong reasons always misses the mark. Listen to yet another sweeping proclamation from the Holy Spirit about the supremacy of trust:

…and everything that does not come from trust (faith) is sin. Rom. 14:23

Everything? Oh, come on, God…not everything.

Everything.

A useful definition for sin is “missing the mark.” (It doesn’t fully cover the egregious nature of sin, but it can be helpful.)

With this in mind, let’s paraphrase Romans 14:23:

…and everything you do that does not come from trusting God as your Father misses the mark.

When you act according to your trust in yourself— your business acumen or your experience—or perhaps in someone else, you will miss God’s best. And when you act out of fear—whether of God, what others think, or the outcome—you always overact and therefore miss the mark.

How could this be anything other than missing the mark? You trusted you. You left God out. You obeyed you. You pleased you. You therefore displeased God.

But you can indeed trust God. You can safely obey your Heavenly Father. Yes, you can abandon the outcome to Him.

And you can do all this without fear, because he loves you perfectly.

Imagine that life.

[1] Oswald Chambers, My Utmost For His Highest, November 2.