Why Even Bother With Following God’s Way?

What are the benefits of following God? People who don’t follow and love God do fine - right? So why follow? Following God restricts us from fun. Isn’t it better to live your own life?

Have you ever looked at someone who wants nothing to do with God and thought, their life looks a whole lot better than mine? Be honest. Because if you have, you are in very good company.

The writer of Psalm 73 beat you to it. A man named Asaph. He was a man of God, looked at people who ignored God entirely and wrote this:

“I was envious of the proud when I saw them prosper despite their wickedness. They seem to live such painless lives. Their bodies are so healthy and strong. They don’t have troubles like other people.”

(Psalm 73:3–5 NCV)

That’s not being negative, it’s a believer who nearly lost his faith over what he saw. And God left it in the Bible, which tells me He’s not afraid of the question.

But here’s where Asaph landed. Verse 17, he went into the sanctuary of God, and he says he finally understood the destiny of the wicked.

That word “destiny” is the word that changes everything. Because the question was never just how is their life going right now. The question is how does this end.

Here’s the truth: “Prosperity without God is a very comfortable seat on a train heading in the wrong direction.”

The seat is nice. The ride is smooth. But the destination doesn’t change. Jesus said it plainly: “It is worthless to have the whole world if you yourself are lost.” (Mark 8:36 NCV)

Worthless. Not incomplete. Not less than ideal. Worthless. So don’t measure your life against someone else’s window display. You are not seeing the whole picture. It’s why Jesus said the first will be last and last will be first - after we die.

Now, with that said, Deuteronomy 28 lays out something I want you to sit with. Moses is speaking to Israel on the edge of the Promised Land, and God sets before them the most a simple, but not easy choice.

Two roads - two directions. And not maybe, not probably, here is exactly what each road produces.

The blessings described in the first fourteen verses are staggering in their scope. Blessed in the city. Blessed in the country. Blessed coming in and going out. Work, family, finances, provision, all of it covered.

And then verse 7 adds a radical image, your enemies come at you from one direction but flee from you in seven. In Hebrew culture, seven meant completeness, totality. Your opposition arrives organized and unified, and leaves shattered, scattered in every direction at once.

But the chapter doesn’t stop there. It goes on for fifty-four more verses, and they describe the mirror image. Everything that was blessed, cursed. Coming in, going out, work, family, finances, all of it reversed.

And He adds “confusion in everything you put your hand to.” Not stupidity. Not bad luck. Confusion. Things that should work, don’t. Plans that seem sound, fall apart. Relationships that started with so much promise, ending in wreckage.

And we blame everything and everyone around us. But what if the confusion isn’t random? What if the pattern you keep living inside is connected to a posture you’ve been living in toward God?

Here’s the question that forces me to ask myself honestly, and I ask it of you today. Is your obedience actual obedience? Or is it selective obedience?

Because there is a version of the Christian life that looks religious on the outside and is fundamentally self-directed on the inside. We follow God’s ways where they already line up with what we wanted, and we quietly override Him everywhere else.

Proverbs 14:12 says there is a way that seems right to a person, but in the end it leads to death. Selective obedience is still disobedience. You don’t get partial blessings for partial compliance.

And for the person who isn’t sure they believe any of this, the principles in Scripture are not just religious suggestions. They are the manufacturer’s instructions for the human soul.

And when you ignore the manufacturer’s instructions, it doesn’t matter whether you believe in the manufacturer. The machine still breaks down the same way.

Here’s the deal. I’ve lived both. It’s not the money, the stuff, the look where the real blessings are. It’s the peace, the deep joy, the confidence, the true contentment you enjoy now. There is blessing “now”. It’s not guaranteed, but it’s up to God.

So, Moses closes the argument in Deuteronomy 30:19 with words that are as urgent today as the day he spoke them:

“I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live.” (Deuteronomy 30:19 NCV)

The choice is in front of you today. The life you are living right now is the accumulated result of choices you have already made.

But the road can change, because today’s choice is more powerful than yesterday’s pattern. Why not follow God? Why not choose eternal blessing?

Here’s a closing truth: “You are already living the answer to which road you’re on.” The question is whether that’s the answer you want to be living.

GOD, help us trust you. Help us believe you are on our side. You offer grace, mercy, forgiveness - and - blessing now. Today. And forever. Help us choose you and your ways. IJNIP amen ♥️