Following Jesus – Mark 1:17

And Jesus said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you become fishers of men.”

Jesus said, “Follow Me,” and we, who committed our lives to Him, dropped all that we held in our hands and followed Him.

With exuberance, we received Him as our Lord.  With joy, we entered into eternal life.  The warmth of His love thrilled our hearts and the promise of salvation quieted our souls.  With conviction of the Lord’s goodness and faithfulness, we stepped onto the Highway of Holiness, and thus the Lord began His purifying work within us.  He rescued us from the miry pit into which our sinfulness had dragged us,[1] and He gave us hearts of flesh.  He adopted us into His family, making us holy and blameless, able to stand before the unblemished Lamb of God.[2]

As we rejoice in our relationship with Jesus, so we must walk in a manner pleasing to Him,[3] imitating Him, and following Him.[4]  Though He chose us and gave us spiritual eyes to see and ears to hear, though He opened heaven’s floodgates, raining blessings down on us, equipping us for every good work, we must stay the course after the first blush of our love affair with Him begins to fade.  We must heed His instruction to stay close to Him, to persevere when trials abound and disappointment weighs upon our hearts, to act as Jesus would act, to be in the places where Jesus would be, to lay down our lives for others as Jesus laid down His life.  We must unashamedly emulate Christ, denying ourselves, carrying His Word with heads lifted high, jubilant in the glory of the Son of Man.[5]

Each day, we have a choice: whose voice will we heed?  Will we regard our sinful natures, listening as self directs us to trust in plans and devices of our own design, or will we acknowledge and submit to the supreme lordship of Christ over our hearts, our minds, and our souls, trusting that as we do, He will make our paths straight?[6]

Choose the latter.  Having been set free, abide in the freedom Christ gives to you.[7]  Do not become entangled once again in the strangling vines of the marsh or slip into its quicksand.  Stay on the highway paved in solid rock.  Follow Jesus, and the Father will bless the works of your hand, accept the meditations of your heart, and honor your dedicated life.[8]  Follow the Light, which reflects the glory of God in all its magnificence and the Light of Life will dwell within you.[9]

[1] Psalm 40:2

[2] Ephesians 1:4

[3] Colossians 2:6

[4] 1 Corinthians 11:1

[5] Luke 9:23

[6] Proverbs 3:6

[7] Galatians 5:13

[8] John 12:26

[9] John 8:12