Walking With Christ

(Part 4 of 8)

⚓ Floatie:  Avoidance Is Not Peace — It Is Delayed Obedience

James 4:17  So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.(ESV)

Most believers do not rebel against God — they delay Him.  Avoidance feels safer than obedience because avoidance removes risk.
But Scripture is brutally clear:  Avoidance is sin.

Not dramatic sin.  Not scandalous sin.  But quiet sin — the kind that rewires the soul.

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✒️ Forge:  The Anatomy of Avoidance

1. Avoidance Is Control in Disguise

Avoidance is not laziness.  It’s not apathy.  It’s not indecision.

Avoidance is a strategy, a method of self-protection.

You avoid:

• conversations that might wound you,
• obedience that might expose you,
• responsibilities that might overwhelm you,
• repentance that might humble you,
• decisions that might commit you,
• relationships that might cost you,
• callings that might stretch you,
• truths that might confront you.

Avoidance is the refusal to move where obedience will demand vulnerability.  It is control with better manners.

2. Avoidance Enters When Fear Dictates Strategy

In Genesis 3, Adam and Eve don’t run from God until after sin:

Genesis 3:8  And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.(ESV)

Hiding is the first form of avoidance in Scripture.

What did Adam avoid?

• God’s voice,
• responsibility,
• confession,
• exposure,
• intimacy,
• truth.

Avoidance didn’t begin with fear of God’s punishment — it began with fear of being seen.  This is the heart of avoidance today.  People fear seen-ness more than they fear God.

3. Avoidance Creates the Illusion of Peace

Avoidance feels like relief.

• “I’ll deal with it later.”
• “Now isn’t the right time.”
• “I need to pray more before I act.”
• “I’ll wait until things settle down.”
• “I just don’t want to cause problems.”

Avoidance creates a false peace by removing friction.
But Scripture warns:

Jeremiah 6:14  They have healed the wound of my people lightly, saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ when there is no peace.(ESV)

Avoidance is counterfeit peace — silencing the wound instead of healing it.

4. Avoidance Pretends to Be Wisdom

Believers often baptize avoidance with religious language:

• “I’m waiting on the Lord.”
• “I don’t want to rush ahead of God.”
• “It isn’t the season yet.”

Biblically, waiting on the Lord means obeying Him when He speaks, not waiting until you feel safe.  Avoidance rewrites obedience into delay.  This is how people stay spiritually stagnant while believing they are spiritually careful.

Jesus exposes this tendency:

Luke 9:59–62  (59)To another he said, “Follow me.”  But he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.”  (60)And Jesus said to him, “Leave the dead to bury their own dead.  But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.”  (61)Yet another said, “I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home.”  (62)Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”(ESV)

Every avoided command begins with “Lord… but first…”  Avoidance is delayed obedience, and delayed obedience is disobedience.

5. Avoidance Grows When Faith Shrinks

Avoidance grows in the cracks where trust is thin:

• if I obey, I might fail
• if I speak, I might be rejected
• if I confront, I might lose stability
• if I confess, I might be humiliated
• if I surrender, I might lose control
• if I act, the outcome might hurt

Avoidance is rarely about the situation itself.  It is about the fear of exposure — exposure to risk, exposure to pain, exposure to responsibility, exposure to consequence.

But Scripture says:

2 Corinthians 5:7  for we walk by faith, not by sight.(ESV)

Avoidance is walking by sight.  Obedience is walking by faith.

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⚒️ Anvil:  Avoidance Always Costs More Than Obedience

Avoidance does not preserve peace — it multiplies consequences.

Avoidance creates:

• unresolved conflict,
• spiritual stagnation,
• emotional numbness,
• unspoken resentment,
• relational distance,
• chronic anxiety,
• hidden guilt,
• false identities,
• unclaimed callings,
• delayed healing.

Avoidance does not keep you safe — it keeps you unchanged.  God does not bless avoidance.  He exposes it.

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🔥 Ember:  God Confronts Avoidance Because He Intends to Heal You

Every time God calls someone in Scripture, He interrupts avoidance:

• Moses avoided Egypt — God sent him back.
• Jonah avoided Nineveh — God redirected him violently.
• Jeremiah avoided speaking — God put His words in his mouth.
• Gideon avoided leading — God stripped his army to 300.
• Peter avoided restoration — Jesus asked him three times, “Do you love me?”

God does not confront avoidance to shame you.  He confronts avoidance to free you.  What you avoid is often where God intends to work most deeply.

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🌿 Covenant Triumph:  God Does Not Ask You to Face What He Will Not Face With You

Avoidance assumes:  “I will be alone in the pain, the conversation, the obedience, or the fallout.”

But God’s covenant says the opposite:

Isaiah 41:10  fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.(ESV)

God does not command what He will not empower.  He does not expose what He will not heal.  He does not call where He will not accompany.  The covenant triumph of this message is simple:  Whatever you avoid becomes your master.  Whatever you obey God in becomes free territory.

Obedience breaks avoidance.  Presence breaks fear.  Covenant breaks isolation.

The Practice of Obedience:  Face One Thing You Have Avoided

Avoidance dies only when confronted by action, relationship, and truth.

For this message:

1. Physical Act:  Do the One Task You’ve Avoided

Choose one concrete action you’ve delayed:

• a call,
• a decision,
• a confession,
• a responsibility,
• a habit break,
• an appointment.

Complete it within 48 hours.  When finished, say aloud:  “Avoidance is not my master.”

2. Relational Act:  Admit Your Avoidance to One Person

Tell someone affected by your avoidance:  “I’ve been avoiding this.  I’m choosing obedience instead.”

This breaks secrecy and self-protection.

3. Spiritual Act:  Ask God What You Fear Will Happen If You Obey

Pray honestly:  “Lord, show me the consequence I fear most if I obey You.”

Let God name your fear — because fears named lose power.  Fears hidden multiply.

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[⚓ Floatie] [✒️ Forge] [⚒️ Anvil] [🔥 Ember] [🌿 Covenant Triumph]
This post follows the Forge Baseline Rule—layered truth for the discerning remnant.