Of all C.S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia, The Silver Chair, is my favorite. At one point in the Silver Chair the characters are deciding whether or not to obey Aslan. When Puddleglum suggests that they should obey Aslan, a girl named Jill responds, “Do you mean you think everything will come right if we do [obey Aslan].”
Puddleglum responds, “I don’t know about that. You see Aslan didn’t tell [us] what would happen. He only told us what to do. . . it may be the death of us. . . but that doesn’t let us off from obeying Aslan.”
Lewis’ point was that Christians should obey God even when it looks as though obeying him will make our lives more difficult. We must trust God’s word, rather than how we think things will turn out.
The Bible is full of examples of men and women who obeyed God when doing so was a great risk. Daniel didn’t know that the lions wouldn’t eat him when he was ordered not to pray. David didn’t know for sure if he could win against Goliath. Shadrach, Meschach and Abendigo didn’t know that they would be spared death in the fiery furnace.
They followed God’s word, even when it required great risk.
If there is an area in your life where you know that obedience is needed, then stop worrying about how things will turn out and obey God. Entrust yourself to the sovereign God of the universe.
I’m not sure this is the true Christian approach in such circumstances. As the Bible claims even of the Old Testament heroes, in Hebrews 11, the motivation for obedience to God is not fatalism but faith, faith that even though the worst may happen in this life we will receive a greater reward beyond death.
Good clarification. Yes, God works all things together for good for his own (Romans 8:28 ff). So, I should have been more careful to avoid the implication of fatalism.
I intended to say, “Trust God rather than our sense of how we think things will turn out.”
Thanks for the input.