Compromise is Rebellion, Not Partial Obedience

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The purest obedience is doing what God says in its simplest form.

The flesh always wants to add reason to God's instruction.  We try to find ways to appease God and ourselves.  That is called rebellion by God.  

Our reasons are at war with God's instructions.

Galatians 5:17 NKJV — For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish.

Well-intentioned people are the most likely to compromise, because they believe their intention is what God wants and they miss the war their flesh is having with God's Spirit.  God knows our intentions lack His understanding.  Obedience cannot be replaced by well-intentioned "getting close."

If God calls me to do something, I just want to do it, knowing and believing His ways are different than mine.  Obeying God almost always results in doing something the world wouldn't do. God asks us to give things we wouldn't to people we wouldn't naturally give them to. God asks us to forgive those we think don't deserve it. He asks us to see things differently than we naturally do, support things we don't value, and to be a part of what He does to test, shake, support, build, and lead... Sometimes He asks us to let go of what everyone else is chasing.  Sometimes He asks us to hold on to what seems like we should be letting go of.  

When I obey Him, I always am thankful for it later as His actual purpose unfolds and I see what He was doing was different than I thought.  

When I compromise His instructions with my reasons, I feel obedient at first, but over time I see my agreement could have been more pure.

God's ways are different than ours.  He offends our sense of what is fair, responsible, necessary, and good.  That's what makes Him God! He simply sees and knows more than we do. 

Trying to "help" God causes much trouble. God needs no help. Obeying Him helps me get into His leadership more.  Rationalizing my decisions to compromise what God said to do with what feels more right to me leads me into deeper delusion.

We are always one prayer away from coming back into a right relationship with God.  The most costly things He asks us to do tempt us to compromise the most. Trying to gloss over our compromise with our good intentions makes us more rebellious, not less... Creating two sins instead of one! 

Owning our compromise, admitting it, and asking God what to do, instead of telling Him we meant well, is what it means to truly turn back to Him.

1 Samuel 15:22-28 NKJV — So Samuel said: “Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, As in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, And to heed than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, And stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, He also has rejected you from being king.” Then Saul said to Samuel, “I have sinned, for I have transgressed the commandment of the LORD and your words, because I feared the people and obeyed their voice. “Now therefore, please pardon my sin, and return with me, that I may worship the LORD.” But Samuel said to Saul, “I will not return with you, for you have rejected the word of the LORD, and the LORD has rejected you from being king over Israel.” And as Samuel turned around to go away, Saul seized the edge of his robe, and it tore. So Samuel said to him, “The LORD has torn the kingdom of Israel from you today, and has given it to a neighbor of yours, who is better than you.

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