In this short devotional dialogue, Speaker A introduces a personal decision that may upset others and cues a clip from Pastor Philip Anthony Mitchell. Speaker B, quoting the pastor, exhorts listeners to prioritize obedience to God over people‑pleasing, emphasizing that God cares for the hearts of those hurt by our obedience. The counsel outlines practical steps: creating distance and boundaries with those who may be hurt, refusing to feel guilty for those boundaries, and trusting that God will manage the emotional fallout as a divine public‑relations effort. The core message is that obedience to God supersedes sacrifice or maintaining relationships for human approval; when God calls for a hard yes, believers should silence louder external voices, rely on divine grace to compensate for any hurt, and remember that “obedience is better than sacrifice.”
I'm about to make a decision that's probably going to rub a lot of people the wrong way. I was trying to find some conviction in making this decision. I came across this video by Pastor Philip Anthony Mitchell, and I want to watch it together real quick.
God will care for the hearts of those who get hurt as a result of our obedience. And so one of the easiest ways to do this, as you're praying for yourself and praying for that person, is that you slowly begin to create distance and boundaries between you and that person. You don't always have to announce that with a trumpet. but you do be able to create some distance between you and that person. And then the thing is this, and why somebody needs to hear this, that you can't feel guilty for doing this.
When it's time to obey the Lord, you have to understand that obedience is better than sacrifice. There are some relationships that you think that you are doing and you are honoring God by keeping them, and there are probably some jobs that you are doing and you think that you're honoring God by keeping it, but There's going to come a point in your life when God asks of you something that is going to be hard to let go, something that might hurt people or make people sad or grieve. And you have to understand that the responsibility of the repercussions of your obedience relies on the Lord, meaning that the fallout and the fallback that comes as a result of you obeying God is for the Lord to mitigate. He is going to be your PR. He is going to be the one that helps manage the emotions and the expectations of all the things that come from you giving him your yes. And I just want to make sure that in this season that you give God your yes. One of the reasons why it's hard for us to give God our yes is that we're worried about what people are going to think. If you think about it, the reason why you're hesitating on giving God a yes is because either your voice or the voice of another is much louder than the voice of God, and it shouldn't be so. So I want you to be in the season right now where you're obeying God and understanding that if somebody gets upset or somebody is hurt because of your obedience, The love of God and the grace that he makes available to each and every one of us will compensate for that. Just remember, obedience is better than sacrifice.
