Why Does Obeying God Sometimes Make Life Harder? – Pastor Amy

April 23rd, 2025

By Amy Graham

Scripture:

Exodus 5:1-6:13

Obedience Doesn’t Always Lead to Immediate Results

Obedience to God doesn’t always bring the kind of results we hope for, at least not right away. Sometimes, stepping out in faith can make things look worse before they get better. We see this clearly in the story of Moses, and many of us experience the same thing in our lives.

For example, in 2016, Aaron, my husband, and I began what we thought would be a short journey, but it quickly became a long, uphill battle. In a surprising move, our daughter’s charter school took us to court in an effort to prove they could meet her needs, hoping to block a state-funded placement. We had an incredible team backing us, one of the top educational consultants and a nationally respected special education attorney. Still, we lost the first hearing. Our lawyers were so stunned that they appealed the decision at their own expense, only for us to lose again.

Refusing to back down, we tried a new legal route, this time directly against DCPS. But once again, we faced defeat, twice. After four grueling years, most people would’ve walked away. But that’s not how God made me. I’m a fighter, especially when it comes to my daughter. And I knew deep in my spirit that God was calling me to keep going. This was personal, and I wasn’t about to quit.

Similarly, Moses was called to confront the oppressive giant powers of his day for his people, and it was not an easy task. As we continue to march through the book of Exodus, today we’re going to see how Moses and his brother, Aaron, responded to the call of God to confront Pharaoh and how it was not very straightforward.

When Obedience Brings Resistance

In Exodus 3, God calls Moses, a baby rescued during a genocide, adopted by the Pharaoh’s daughter, and the promised deliverer for His people. But just two chapters later, in Exodus 5, an eighty-year-old Moses with his brother Aaron in tow boldly approaches Pharaoh like two scrappy underdogs about to challenge the reigning heavyweight champion. They basically say, “Pharaoh, we have a message from the Almighty God of Israel: Let our people go! They need to take a little trip into the wilderness to worship Him.” Pharaoh is completely unimpressed and immediately shuts them down. Not only were their requests denied, but the Israelites were punished for this request. Their oppression worsens, and the people turn on Moses. “Why did you even come?” They cry. “You’ve made it worse!”

Of course, Moses is disheartened and confused. So Moses turns to God with questions, “Why, Lord? Why did you send me?” It’s a question we’ve all asked at some point in our lives.

And God’s response? “Moses, just watch. Pharaoh thinks he’s in charge, but I’m about to show him who really runs the universe. I will rescue My people, and when I do, it’s going to be so epic that no one will ever forget it. Trust Me.”

When we follow God, we expect progress. But instead, like Moses, we often face resistance first, but like Moses, we must obey and believe that God will do what He says!

Obedience Requires Unshakable Faith

When we confront power, it will inevitably result in resistance. Whether it is the powers of this earthly world or the powers of darkness, which can often be seen as one and the same, resistance is almost always guaranteed. When we are doing God’s work we will face resistance and difficulty but like Moses’ story reminds us, obedience requires deep, resilient faith. Moses didn’t walk away from God in his pain he drew nearer. He questions, yes, but he doesn’t abandon the relationship. That’s faith: staying connected to God, even in the confusion.

Obedience like this is echoed throughout history. Think of Bloody Sunday in 1965—when peaceful protests in Selma, Alabama, were brutally attacked for marching toward justice. Their obedience didn’t bring immediate change, but it became a spark that helped ignite a movement. Obedience is often a long, slow walk toward freedom, requiring us to trust even when results are invisible.

When we confront the evil powers of this world, we will undoubtedly face resistance and possibly put our lives at risk, just like Moses and Aaron did when they confronted Pharaoh. And yet, when God calls us to act, standing up for the voiceless and other injustices, our obedience to God demonstrates our trust in His final and ultimate victory that comes through the death and resurrection of Jesus.

Our obedience to the Lord could determine someone else’s freedom or wellbeing. Therefore, as we act in obedience, we must have unshakable steadfast faith so that God can do a mighty work in and through us.

Take for example Father Silas Habib, a priest who God asked to start storing food for at least a year’s time in 2022, chose to be obedient even though it didn’t make any sense. Then the war began and his congregation took shelter in his church during the war. Father Habib was obedient to God even though it didn’t make sense and he has remained steadfast in his faith, providing food and shelter for those in need, even while a massacre is happening around him.

God’s Power Often Moves Gradually

When obedience to the Lord leads to greater hardship, taking our doubts to God rather than giving into despair, will lead us into a deeper, more intimate relationship with the God. We’ll actually be able to hear from the Lord when we need Him most. We have to drown out the noise and the distractions from the world and our current circumstances to clearly hear from God and understand what He’s doing. Because even if we don’t feel it, the Lord’s character remains trustworthy, even when His plan seems delayed or on a different timeline than ours.

When we surrender ourselves to the Lord, despite our own discouragement, then we have the opportunity to demonstrate true moral courage.

When Moses returns to God in Exodus 6, God speaks a word of reassurance. He reminds Moses of the covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and promises to act with a “mighty hand.” In Hebrew, the word for this strength is chazaq—a deep, unwavering force that may be slow to appear, but once it begins, nothing can stop it.

Sometimes God doesn’t immediately rescue us because He’s transforming us. He’s teaching us to dwell in His promises, to trust His presence, and to become the people He has called us to be. Deliverance will come but often, formation comes first.

We Still Cry Out—and God Still Responds

6 “Therefore, say to the Israelites: ‘I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. I will free you from being slaves to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment. 7 I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God. Then you will know that I am the Lord your God, who brought you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. 8 And I will bring you to the land I swore with uplifted hand to give to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob. I will give it to you as a possession. I am the Lord.” – Exodus 6:6-8

God is so good, kind and gracious to us to invite us into His intimate thoughts, plans and promises. Like, it truly is incredible. But, He also operates on His own timeline. We want things to happen immediately, and yet, as Pastor Aaron reminded us a couple of weeks ago, God doesn’t wear a watch.

God’s promises unfold in His timing and often through sustained faithfulness and obedience on our part. Overcoming injustice and oppression rarely sees instant victory, but instead requires ongoing courage and trust in the Lord.

After four years of fighting for our daughter’s educational needs, God led us through a backdoor approach that had DCPS administrators and decision makers rolling out the red carpet to get our daughter all that she needed. When we trust God in the process and remain obedient to what He has called us to do, then He comes through, in His own way and in His own time.

We have to trust that obedience to God positions us to witness God’s power, even if it comes through a process rather than a quick fix. This requires us to embrace a long-term view of God’s deliverance…and often we have to learn to dwell with the Lord in the midst of the deliverance process.

In our world today, we still face Pharaohs: corrupt systems, oppressive leaders, injustice that breaks our hearts. But we also still serve a God who hears the cries of His people—and who moves through those willing to be faithful, even in the hard places.

Our ultimate hope is in Jesus the One who has already defeated death and offers us resurrection life. His Spirit empowers us to keep going when the journey gets hard.

So if you’re in a season where obedience feels like a dead end, take heart. God is still at work, even in the waiting. Keep showing up. Keep trusting. Your faith, like Moses’, might be the first crack in someone else’s prison walls.