Is It Enough Just to Obey?

Thus says the LORD concerning this people: "They have loved to wander thus; they have not restrained their feet; therefore the LORD does not accept them; now he will remember their iniquity and punish their sins." Jeremiah 14:10

What if the task ahead of you yields no fruit...but for experiencing your own obedience to the Lord? What if instead of gratitude for a job well done, rejection is all you are offered, along with a determined attitude of rebellion?  This describes Jeremiah's dilemma.  He preached and preached God's word to the Israelites, only to be shunned by them, his words ignored, and his mission utterly futile...yet some of the most beloved scriptures of grace and hope are found in this book.

Sometimes we will work painstakingly on a particular project, envisioning the end result and when the end result arrives, it is less than desired - not bad - just less that what we were striving for and so we are undone.  Our focus is on the outcome, bypassing the lessons learned along the way.
Lives are lived with expectations of success.  We dream of better days and prosperity.  Some work years at one goal without ever achieving it. Isn't there something to be said for staying the course God calls us to, even if it means that we never see anything meritorious in the end?  Yes.  God loves obedience.  It is all He has ever asked us to do.  If we, like Jeremiah, give our bodies to be His vessels for use, then it is God's word that is at stake...not the value of our endeavors.  Let the gospel be the offense and not we ourselves. Let our message and our representation of Who Jesus is be all that matters and not whether or not we are heard.
When God calls us to live for Him without counting the cost - it is dangerous to decide ahead of time what the outcome should look like.  God in His omniscience already knows these things. Maybe the only outcome is the one found in the heart of the one committed to obey.

And maybe the only fruit of our doings is found on the inside.