{"id":85091,"date":"2026-08-01T12:21:32","date_gmt":"2026-08-01T16:21:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/?p=85091"},"modified":"2026-08-01T12:21:32","modified_gmt":"2026-08-01T16:21:32","slug":"the-long-obedience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/the-long-obedience\/","title":{"rendered":"The Long Obedience"},"content":{"rendered":"

From The Country Disciple:<\/em><\/p>\n

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The parable of the sower and the seed describes a farmer planting a seed in the field. Time passes, and without the farmer’s further effort, the seed produces the blade, the ear, then the grain in the ear. Then the farmer swoops in and harvests the grain. He might receive 30, 60, or even a 100-fold yield from the seed in a single summer.<\/p>\n

But sometimes, the farmer doesn’t plant wheat. Sometimes, he plants a pecan orchard. The growth of a pecan tree in a single summer is hardly noticeable. It produces little more than a twig, and certainly no nuts. The farmer has to wait much longer until harvest time. A pecan won’t get to full production for 15 years, but then it will continue producing for 100, 200, sometimes up to 300 years. In that time, it won’t produce 30, 60, or 100-fold. It might produce 2,000 – 20,000 fold every year. For 100 years. One pecan might produce a 2,000,000-fold yield over the course of several human lifetimes.<\/p>\n

This pecan tree represents the “Long Obedience”. It means that the fruit of obedience doesn’t always appear right away. It may not appear at all during the first few years. But the results are extraordinary. Supernatural. Generational.<\/p>\n

One of the best examples of the “Long Obedience” is Abraham. God promised him a son and a land to call his own. He believed God and obeyed. Decades passed, and the promise seemed impossible, to the point that Abraham took matters into his own hands and fathered Ishmael with his wife’s slave. But God’s promise still awaited him. When Isaac was born, they named him “laughter” because Sara laughed at the possibility that she could still bear a child. Abraham’s long obedience bore phenomenal fruit. The biological descendants of Abraham through Isaac, Ishmael, and Keturah likely number in the hundreds of millions, and there are billions more Christians who are spiritual descendants of Abraham by faith. God plays the long game.<\/p>\n

In our life together, God calls us to do many things, and sometimes the fruit is not immediately evident. It’s not wheat that springs up and ripens in a single summer. When we hear a word from the Lord, we prayerfully discern it (extremely important), and then we act on it. Two examples of the “Long Obedience” from my life are my marriage and my work at the Food Bank. God said that these were part of His plan for my life. He doesn’t have to say anything in particular to keep me moving in this direction. He said it once and doesn’t need to repeat Himself. My responsibility is to respond to His word with the obedience of faith.<\/p>\n

God chose us to tend His pecan orchard. Sometimes it’s a little nuts. Other times, big trees topple in a storm. We have to continue to plant new pecans, knowing that in good time, they will bear fruit. It takes just one nut to make millions more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From The Country Disciple: The parable of the sower and the seed describes a farmer planting a seed in the.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-85091","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-news","7":"entry"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85091","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85091"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85091\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":85092,"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85091\/revisions\/85092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}