“If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the good things of the land.” (Isaiah 1:19)
Have you ever taken a long route only to realize there was a shorter, faster, and better way?
Sometimes in life, it is not ignorance that keeps us stuck but our refusal to do the simple thing God told us to do. Obedience is the shortcut many people overlook. It will save you years of pain, confusion, and wasted effort.
If you have ever driven in Lagos, you would understand that sometimes the shortcut you had in mind is actually the longer route. You see a long line of cars in a standstill, as still as the mannequins in Aleshinloye market. Then you think, in your wisdom, to take a turn. Unknown to you, many other vehicles thought the same and took that very turn, jamming the road further.
Now you are stuck. The shorter route has suddenly become the longer route. Or you join another lane because it looks like the vehicles there are moving faster, only to find it comes to a complete stop the moment you enter. What is more painful is when you see vehicles moving on the lane you left.
The long route to living a fulfilled life, living out God’s purpose for your life, is actually your route. The shorter route is God’s way. His instructions may look like a detour to your mind, but they are the straight path to His plans.
The Israelites had a clear path to Canaan that should have taken days, not decades. But their constant complaining, doubt, fear, and refusal to trust God turned a short trip of forty days into a forty-year death march (Numbers 14:33–34).
The truth is that disobedience always lengthens the process and even wearies us more than we realise. God’s instructions are not suggestions; they are maps out of slavery and into promise, and His way of protecting us.
Abraham, on the other hand, left everything he knew immediately when God told him to go (Genesis 12:1–4). His quick obedience positioned him as the father of many nations. He did not debate or delay even though he had no idea where he was going; he trusted and moved, and God made a covenant with him that still blesses the world today.
Peter fished all night and caught nothing. Yet, when Jesus told him to throw the net on the other side, Peter hesitated but obeyed, and the result was overwhelming abundance (Luke 5:4–6). I believe that even if there were no fishes, at the command; at the word of Jesus Christ, fishes from all over the world would have swum into that net. But what if Peter had let pride or exhaustion make him walk away instead of obeying?
What if Joseph had not obeyed the angel’s warning to flee with Mary and Jesus to Egypt that night? (Matthew 2:13–14). A delay could have been costly.
Very often, obedience is the difference between life and death, failure and success, prosperity and poverty, provision and lack, protection and danger, peace and storm. Many times, we do not see the dangers God spares us from simply because we obey.
What if you are just one obedient act away from the breakthrough, provision, or miracle you have been praying for?
Obedience may look hard now, but it is the quickest way to the life you are praying for.
