Our four year old grandson, Liam, recently lost the privilege of playing with his toys. He chose to disobey his parents and it’s now costing him.

They had purchased a birthday gift for one of Liam’s friends from school and put it up high out of his reach for safe keeping. They also told Liam it was for his friend and not to get into it or try to play with it.

What did Liam do? He got up early one morning while his parents were still asleep, slid a chair over to shelf, and grabbed the forbidden birthday gift. He then opened the box and played with the toy.

What did his parents do? They took away all his toys and told him that he has to earn the right to play with them over a period of time.

When Monieca spoke to Jacqueline via Skype yesterday, Liam was not in a good mood.

Sometimes when you and I disobey God the consequence is that we lose His blessings. He may take from us things we already have, but more often He takes away things He was planning to give us. I call these lost blessings or lost opportunities.

Part of the tragedy is that we don’t know we lost them because we never had them. I’m convinced that all our lives would be richer in many ways if we obeyed the Lord more consistently.

So the next time you’re tempted to “play with a toy” that God has put off-limits, remember that in doing so you may just lose an even better toy as part of God’s discipline.

Pastor Steve Hogg