FOLLOW ME

"And He [Jesus] saith unto them, Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.  And they straightway left their nets, and followed Him.  And going on from thence, He saw other two brethren, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in a ship with Zebedee their father, mending their nets; and He called them.  And they immediately left the ship and their father, and followed Him."  (Matthew 4:22). 

"And as Jesus passed forth from thence, He saw a man, named Matthew, sitting at the receipt of custom: and He saith unto him, Follow Me. And he arose, and followed Him."  (Matthew 9:9). 

God's call on our lives can be boiled down to this one simple invitation, "Follow Me."  How we choose to respond to this invitation will determine our spiritual health from that point on in our lives.  It is the very essence of the gospel message and is the fountainhead of streams of living water.  

As the Lord Jesus walked the shores of Galilee, and by Matthew's tax booth, He called to His prospective disciples to follow Him - and then He walked on.  He had made His selection.  He initially chose them; they did not choose Him.  It was now up to those whom He called to respond.  It was not as though they were not already occupied with other very important things.  Some were fishing, others were mending nets, and another was collecting taxes.  Whatever they did, it required a deliberate decision on their part.  They either had to drop what they were doing to run after the Master, or they had to decide to continue with their own pursuits and allow the Lord to disappear from view.  Jesus obviously knew whom He had chosen, for they left their other activities to follow Him.

The choice for us today is no less simple - and difficult.  We are engaged in a multitude of things in our lives that can distract us from the spiritual realm.  Some are seemingly crucial, others are totally frivolous.  Some are occupations that provide us with our livelihood; others are simply pleasures, hobbies, and entertainments.  There are also those pursuits that involve giving our time and labor to help others with genuine needs.  All of these activities can be harmless, and all of them can be vain as well.  The question we must ask ourselves is whether what we are doing is hindering us from following where the Lord is leading us.  Even charitable acts and Christian work can derail us from the will of God if it is not where He is directing us.  The Holy Spirit wants to lead every step of our journey in this life just like the pillar of cloud led the Israelites through the desert to the promised land during their exodus from Egypt.  We may think that we know where God wants us to go, and what He wants us to do; but, in the end, if we aren't following Him, we are just going to end up lost in the wilderness.

Jesus was once invited to eat supper in the home of a Pharisee.  While there, He told a parable about another man who threw a feast and invited a great many guests.  When everything was prepared, this man sent his servant to tell the guests to come because all was ready.  Scripture says, "And they all with one consent began to make excuse. The first said unto him, I have bought a piece of ground, and I must needs go and see it: I pray thee have me excused.  And another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to prove them: I pray thee have me excused.  And another said, I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.  So that servant came, and shewed his lord these things.  And the lord said unto the servant, Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled.  For I say unto you, That none of those men which were bidden shall taste of my supper."  (Luke 14:18-20, 23, 24).  Oh, how critical it is for us to learn to hear the Lord's still, small voice in our lives, and then to follow where He leads us.  There is one simple prayer that, if we would pray it every day from the depths of our heart, would make it much easier to hear the Lord speaking to us.  That prayer is just this: "Not my will, but Thine be done."  Just the act of praying such a prayer is a decision to follow the Lord, because Jesus was the first to pray it Himself before facing Calvary.

Jesus said, "If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.  For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for My sake shall find it.  For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?"  (Matthew 16:24-26).  It is the cross of Christ that separates the wheat from the tares, and the sheep from the goats.  If, as a Christian, I have not learned what it means to deliberately deny myself, then I have not grown one bit in Christ, and do not know what it means to follow my Lord.  All the Bible knowledge in the world, and all the good works that I can do in my lifetime, mean nothing if I don't know what it means to take up my cross.

It is not up to me to tell you what you must leave behind, nor is it up to you to tell me.  It is the voice of our Savior speaking to us through His Holy Spirit Who is very capable of revealing His will to us.  It is He Whom we must obey and follow.  In the last chapter of John, the Lord tells Peter of things that will take place in his life and how he was to glorify God; but Peter looked at John and said to the Lord, "...and what shall this man do?"  Jesus' response to Peter was somewhat of a rebuke.  He said, "If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? follow thou Me."  (John 21:21, 22).  In other words, "If I have him sit on his hands till I return, it's none of your business.  You need only be concerned with following Me yourself."

What is the Lord speaking to you today?  Where is He leading?  Is there a cross before you that He is asking you to take up?  Yes, it may be painful - crosses usually are.  You will experience a death of sorts, but oh! the resurrection will be glorious!  And the new life that you will feel rushing into you will be worth it all.  The world needs to see those who are willing to follow the Lord Jesus Christ.  When they do, then they will be convinced that the Savior Who we talk about is real; and they will be much more willing to follow Him as well.

"These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth. These were redeemed from among men, being the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb."  (Revelations 14:4).