When Obedience Looks Like Failure

Sometimes in life, obeying God doesn’t feel like you’re winning. It can feel like you're losing, actually. When you feel like you’ve been doing exactly what He’s asked you to do, and yet things are falling apart or going wrong, it’s hard not to question everything. You might even wonder, "Did I misunderstand what God wanted me to do? Was I wrong in following Him? Why does it feel like failure when I’m trying to be obedient?" These are honest questions, and it’s important to acknowledge them because sometimes following God doesn’t look like what we expect. But that doesn’t mean it’s a failure. Sometimes, obedience looks like failure, but in reality, it’s part of God’s bigger plan. And just like in the stories of Moses, Jeremiah, and Paul, sometimes heaven rewrites the story in ways that we can’t see at first.

Take Moses, for example. The story we find in Numbers 20 is a turning point in his leadership. After years of leading the Israelites through wilderness wanderings, facing their complaints, their disbelief, and their stubbornness (I call it simply stupidity), Moses finally finds himself at a place of deep frustration. The people are once again grumbling about being thirsty, questioning why they were brought out of Egypt in the first place. Moses, no doubt exhausted by the constant strain of his role, seeks God for help. And God gives him clear instructions: "Speak to the rock, and water will come out." It sounds simple, right? Just speak to the rock, and the miracle will happen. But Moses, in a moment of anger and frustration, strikes the rock instead of speaking to it.

At first glance, it might seem like Moses just made a small mistake. Water still flows from the rock, after all, and the people’s thirst is quenched. But in that moment, God sees something more. This isn’t just about the water—it’s about obedience. God had given Moses specific instructions, and by striking the rock, Moses didn’t follow them. And the consequence of that wasn’t just about the rock; it was about trust and reverence. God had called Moses to honor Him in front of the people, to show them that God is worthy of reverence, even in the smallest things. Because Moses didn’t do this, God tells him that he will not enter the Promised Land. From a human perspective, this seems harsh. After all, Moses had led the Israelites faithfully for years. He had been through so much with them. But the lesson is clear: obedience isn’t just about the right outcome; it’s about doing things God’s way, with trust and reverence for His instructions. Sometimes, when obedience feels like failure, it’s because God is teaching us something deeper about His ways—something that’s beyond the immediate results.

Now, take a look at Jeremiah. He’s one of those prophets who certainly didn’t see the success we often associate with obeying God. God calls him to speak a difficult, unpopular message to the people of Judah, a message of coming judgment and exile. But the people didn’t want to hear it. They rejected Jeremiah, and they rejected God’s message. And in Jeremiah 38, we find him thrown into a cistern, a muddy pit, left to die. This doesn’t look like a victory, does it? It looks like a complete failure. Here’s this faithful servant of God, doing exactly what God called him to do, and yet he ends up in a pit. The people are rejecting him, and it seems like his ministry is a failure. From a worldly perspective, it’s easy to assume that maybe Jeremiah got it wrong, or that God wasn’t protecting him.

But that’s not the end of the story. God doesn’t leave Jeremiah in the pit. He has a plan to rescue him, and He uses others to bring him out. And even though it seems like failure, God uses that moment to demonstrate His faithfulness, and to show that His Word will never return void. Jeremiah’s obedience, though it brought suffering, was never a failure. The rejection he faced, the pit he was thrown into, were all part of God’s larger plan. Sometimes obedience brings us to places that seem hopeless, and it can feel like we’re failing, but those are often the moments where God is refining us, preparing us for something greater, even if we don’t see it right away. What the world saw as failure, God used to show His glory and to further His purpose.

Then there’s Paul. If anyone had reason to think that obedience to God was a failure, it might have been Paul. He faced constant opposition, beatings, imprisonment, and even shipwrecks—all for the sake of the gospel. In 2 Corinthians 11:24-27, Paul lists the suffering he endured for Christ: "Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked." Imagine that! Here’s a man, fully obedient to God’s call, and yet his life is filled with hardship. From the outside, it seems like failure after failure, doesn’t it? Shipwrecked, beaten, and thrown into prison for preaching a message of hope.

But Paul saw things differently. In Philippians 1:12-14, he writes, “Now I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has actually served to advance the gospel.” For Paul, his suffering wasn’t a failure—it was an opportunity for God’s Word to spread. Every hardship, every shipwreck, every beating, became a platform for him to testify to the goodness and power of God. When things didn’t go according to plan, Paul didn’t see it as a sign of failure. Instead, he saw it as part of God’s plan to move the gospel forward. That’s a profound perspective. Sometimes, when we obey God, it doesn’t look like success, and it certainly doesn’t feel like success. But God can use our moments of struggle, our seeming defeats, as opportunities to further His kingdom in ways we can’t even imagine.

All three of these stories—Moses, Jeremiah, and Paul—are powerful reminders that obedience isn’t always easy, and it doesn’t always look like success. In fact, sometimes it looks like we’re losing. But in the end, it’s not about the immediate outcome. It’s about being faithful to God’s call, even when it feels like failure. Because we know that heaven will rewrite the story. In the end, God will take our moments of struggle, our moments of “failure,” and use them for His glory and for His kingdom. Sometimes, the places where we feel like we’ve lost are the very places where God is working most powerfully. The key is to keep trusting, to keep obeying, even when it doesn’t make sense.

Obedience, as we see in the Hebrew and Greek, is not just about following instructions—it’s about listening to God, trusting Him, and aligning ourselves with His will. Shama (שָׁמַע), the Hebrew word for obedience, means to listen, to hear, and to respond. It’s not just about action; it’s about the posture of our hearts. Hupakoe (ὑπακοή), the Greek word for obedience, means to submit to authority, to comply with God’s will. It’s not just about following rules; it’s about surrendering our will to God’s.

So, when obedience feels like failure, when the road seems hard and the outcome uncertain, we need to remember that we are part of something much bigger than what we can see in the moment. Moses, Jeremiah, and Paul all show us that obedience is not about worldly success. It’s about following God’s voice, trusting that He is working behind the scenes, and knowing that He will rewrite the story in His perfect timing. Even when things seem bleak, we can rest assured that God is at work, and in the end, He will bring about the victory, in ways we never imagined.