When Obedience Costs You Everything

I want to share a season of my life where obedience truly cost me something.

The year was 2016. My husband and I had been pastoring for only two short years. We had no prior training and no seminary schooling. When we first started the church in 2014, I did not want the title or the position. In fact, I wrestled with God about it for nearly two months.

My husband had become a full-time pastor. God had called him out of his secular job only months into ministry. But I was still working and by 2016, I had already come to accept that pastoring was my calling.

God had won that wrestling match.

A Difficult Season

My daughter was 14 years old and struggling with depression, anxiety, and self-harm. It was one of the hardest seasons of my life.

She eventually confessed to me that when she was around five or six years old, she had been repeatedly sexually abused by a young man at our first church. My husband and I were devastated.

We immediately got her professional help and started therapy. It helped her and it helped us too.

During that time, I had been working at our local Children’s Hospital, an incredible organization with excellent benefits and a strong culture that genuinely cared for its employees.

I was comfortable. I was secure.

I had worked since I was sixteen years old, and stability had always mattered to me. I often think about how God created Eve after Adam. Everything had already been prepared. There was provision, order, and security. I felt safe.

But the Lord had other plans.

Even when we do not understand them, His plans are always for our good.

God Was Restoring More Than My Daughter

My daughter continued therapy, but healing was a process. She was being restored at God's pace, not mine.

As summer approached in June 2016, I knew she would soon be home during the day. Neither of us wanted her to be alone.

Then I clearly heard God speak to my heart:

"Leave your job."

Financially, we were not ready.

We were not stable.

But my daughter needed me.

And truthfully, God was restoring more than just her.

He was restoring us.

I had gone through rejection from my own mother and sexual abuse from my father, and those wounds had affected how I saw and treated my daughter. God was doing a deep work in both of us.

Where I once had not seen the need to be close to her, I suddenly longed to hold her, sit with her, and cry with her.

It was a beautiful mess that God was rebuilding.

Hearing God's Voice in the Valley

At one point, we had to admit my daughter into a psychiatric facility for five days because she had a plan to take her own life.

I was confused.

I was hurting.

I was desperate.

But it was in that valley that I learned to recognize God's voice.

My daughter's name is Victoria, but we had always called her Vicky or Toya.

While sitting in that place, I heard a quiet but unmistakable voice in my heart say:

"Call her Victoria, because I have called her into victory. I named her Victoria for a reason."

His voice was so gentle, yet so clear.

From that day forward, I began calling her by her full name:

Victoria.

The Cost of Obedience

I ended up leaving my comfortable and secure job.

I chose obedience.

And although it felt scary and uncertain at the time, I can tell you this:

I have never lacked anything. God has been my provider in every way.

We sometimes think giving our lives to God means life will become perfect, easy, and stress-free.

But often it is in the difficult seasons where God teaches us the deepest lessons.

He teaches us obedience.

He teaches us dependence.

He teaches us to trust Him completely.

I don't know where I would be without Him.

My life is not perfect.

But He is.

And that is enough.

Pastora Adriana Alonso

Pastor Adriana Alonso is the Co-Founder of Family Revival Church and has faithfully served alongside her husband, Pastor Mario Alonso, for over 12 years. With a heart for families, women, and restoration, she is passionate about seeing lives transformed and people awakened to their God-given identity and purpose. Known for her grace, wisdom, and servant’s heart, Pastor Adriana is devoted to building strong families, strengthening faith, and advancing God’s Kingdom. She and Pastor Mario are blessed with four children and five grandchildren.