The Runaway – The Reason We RunSample

Not Right Now

The second thing we do to disobey God is that we say, “Not now God. I’m going to live life right now. I’m in my 20’s and I can do what I want to do. I will live for God later in life.” It is in this state of ignorance thinking that our decisions don’t reap consequences and we think that nothing is going to catch up to us. “Not now God, but maybe when I’m in my 30’s or 40’s.” Or “God if you give me this, then I’ll do this.” It’s all wrapped around disobedience. You can’t defer obedience, it is still disobedience. We easily run away from God in this context. We may not get on a physical ship, but we are running away from God in our own way because we are saying, “It’s not that I don’t want to obey you God, but not right now.”

God, I’ll actually tithe when my bank account reflects this much. 

I’ll steward my finances appropriately whenever I accumulate what I need to accumulate. 

God, I will honor what you have intended for us in the covenant of marriage whenever we get into marriage, but right now I want to continue to do things my way. I want to disregard purity and continue to cohabitate with this person. 

It is the mentality of: I’m going to live life the way I want right now and defer what you have said to later times. It is the teenager whose Mom has asked her to clean her room, and a week later, the room is still dirty. Deferred obedience is disobedience.

This, But Not That

The third way we disobey God is with the mentality of saying to God, “I’ll do all of this, but I won’t do that.” This happens often with people who are longing to follow Jesus, but say, “I will follow your commandments, but when it comes to this… I just want to keep this for myself.”

God, I will serve on the set-up and tear-down team every Sunday, but when it comes to my finances… you can’t have that.

God, I will put you first in the center of my marriage and my family, but when it comes to being consistent on Sunday mornings… it’s probably not going to happen.

This is still running away from God and though it might look different than Jonah’s running away, the mentality is the same.