December 12: Insight Post by Rachel Cleveland

  -   December 12, 2025

Obedience Brings Stability and Resilience: Jesus emphasizes that hearing and obeying His words leads to a stable and resilient life. Obedience is key to weathering life’s difficulties with grace and strength.

Friday Verse

Keep putting into practice all you learned and received from me—everything you heard from me and saw me doing. Then the God of peace will be with you.  Philippians 4:9 (NLT)

Friday Questions

In what areas of my life do I need to move from hearing God’s word to actively obeying it? How can I commit to putting into practice what I have learned from Him, knowing that obedience leads to stability and resilience in my life?

Wednesday Insight Post
by Rachel Cleveland

When things need to change in my life, usually big changes like jobs, routine disciplines, or moving on from a situation, the Lord introduces something I like to call the “holy annoyance.” A holy annoyance is where I am living my normal life, going about as I typically would, and things about a certain area of life  start to bother me when they had never bothered me before. For example, I felt a strong calling a few years ago that I was moving. I had been in my apartment for 6 years at the time with a roommate I loved sharing a home with, but little things started to bother me. Things like the complex changed their policy on package delivery, making it harder and more inconvenient for me to get my mail (which is truly aggravating if you know how often Amazon is at my home!). My roommate and I started to disassociate from each other more, not sharing our space well as we had previously done successfully for many years. Little things kept adding up, and I knew the Lord was putting a holy annoyance into place to get me to start to think on His level. To think about His plans for my life rather than continuing on the same path I thought I would stay on. It was May, and my lease was up in September, and I just started organizing, donating, and packing up boxes. I didn’t know if I was just moving across town or across the country, but I knew a move was coming. And because I am so stubborn and like to keep routine, the only way I would respond to change and even start that change was (and often still is!) when the Lord introduces a holy annoyance in my life.

These changes have been wide spread, from moving across the country, to changing churches, to leaving secure jobs. I knew when a holy annoyance showed up, the Lord was trying to get my attention to obey to something that probably wasn’t in my plan. I know the only way I have come out of these changes for the better is because of the firm foundation I have built with the Lord over the years. The relationship has served as the strong foundation providing me stability and strength despite storms, changes, challenges, and heartaches I have felt throughout my life. This obedience of accepting His lead and following His direction has allowed me to live a life I never could have dreamed for myself. And I am better for it. My life is better for it, my world, my community, the lives of those around me- we are all better for it. Our obedience to God has a ripple effect. Not only do we get to experience God’s love for us in new ways because of it, but it also opens up opportunities for those around us to benefit from it. What a gift to your world that can be! I pray you will listen for any holy annoyances in your own life, any ways the Lord is trying to get your attention and redirect you to a path you didn’t see for yourself. And I pray your obedience to that calling ripples through your life and the lives of those around you

Rachel Cleveland
Worship Team Volunteer and Silo Center Preschool Teacher

New Hope Church
Lorton, Virginia
www.newhope.org