Follow Me

FOLLOW ME. That's what Jesus invites us to do. What exactly is meant by those two little words follow me? In short, "follow me" is more or less saying. 'imitate me.' If you follow Christ you'll listen to and do as He commands so to live your life in accordance with His example. How many times have you ever sat at a table when someone was trying to explain instructions written on a piece of paper and they said, "follow me here." Instinctively you knew to lean in closer, listen better, and absorb what was being said. Another example would be if you were sitting in a room with someone you trust and they stood up and said, "Come here, follow me." Most likely in blind faith, fully trusting them, you would get up and trail right behind them no questions asked. When we decide to become followers of Jesus, we make a decisive break with our old way of living and turn to a new way of life. As Christ comes to live in us everything begins to change. Our will changes and our desires change. Sound too difficult to do? It would be if we relied on our own strength but that's the beauty of it. When we decide to follow Christ, He gives us the ability to change our ways through the power of the Holy Spirit. For the first time, we realize who God is, what Jesus has done, and how much we need Him. The sin we once loved we now hate, and the things of God that we thought corny or old-fashioned we now love. We spend our lives in uncompromising obedience to His Word. In essence, it's laying down our lives. And even though it is contrary to our human nature to submit, His Spirit slowly transforms us in a way that helps us do the things that please Him. In time, pleasing Him takes precedence over pleasing ourselves, and doing what is right becomes less difficult. Jesus does not ask us to die for Him, rather change our ways for Him, to "FOLLOW."


Ultimately the call to follow Jesus is a call to die to oneself and to die to the things of this world. It calls for repentance and change. Repentance is an elemental transformation in someone’s mind, heart, and life only capable through God's help. When people truly repent, they turn from walking in one direction to running in the opposite direction. From that point forward, they think differently, believed differently, feel differently, love differently, and live differently. Again, not through their own efforts or strength, but through God's power VIA the Holy Spirit that He gives to those who commit to following Him. When you come to Jesus, He not only forgives you of all your sins, but He also fills you with His Spirit. God has promised his people, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you. . . . I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.” The meaning behind these words is mind-blowing. When you come to Jesus, He puts the source of His life in the center of your life! A miraculous transformation begins. Yes, we die to ourselves and the sinful pleasures we once engaged in but we also live to experience full joy when we follow Him.


It is His Word that brings transformation to our lives. When we come to Him as we are, He places the source of His life at the very core of our lives. We don't need to change to come to Him, we come just as we are ... broken, lost, strapped with problems, engulfed in sin and vices, etc. To come to Jesus, or to believe in Jesus, is to look to Him to satisfy your soul forever. To come to Jesus is to taste and see that He is good and to find Him the end of all your desires. To believe in Jesus is to experience an eternal pleasure that far outweighs and outlasts the temporal pleasures of this world. You have no idea what He is about to do the moment you leave things behind and choose to follow Him. His ways are too great to describe in words. He satisfies your soul forever when you come and believe in Jesus.


I speak from experience when I say there has been a total transformation of my mind, my desire, my will, and my relationships. I am compelled by His love for me to not only tell others about His Word and how it changes lives but also what the life of Jesus looks like in action. I am challenged to follow the footsteps of Jesus and bring a complete transformation over my life. I'm a work in progress, ever-transforming, ever-changing! Simply, God saves a person, fills him with the Holy Spirit, and then says, in effect, “Now you work it out in your life, and be faithful to Me, even though the nature of everything around you is to cause you to be unfaithful.” To become more Christ-like begins by beholding His glory in His Word. That’s why it’s so important to regularly take in Scripture. For as we read or listen to God’s Word the Holy Spirit transforms us into Christ's image without us realizing the work is being done in us! The sin that was once appealing becomes easy to walk away from. If you read through the Bible regularly, you will have the full counsel of God at your disposal. You will start to have the mind of Christ. So when the temptation to commit sin comes knocking, all you'll have to do is draw your sword (which is the Word of God-Ephesians 6:17) aim, and fire those words directly at Satan and the thoughts coming into your mind. In several places, the Bible also tells us the best way to resist temptation is to flee from it (1 Corinthians 6:18; 1 Corinthians 10:14; 1 Timothy 6:11; 2 Timothy 2:22). Yet still, if you fall from time to time, and you will as you transform from glory to glory, repent quickly. Jesus isn't looking for you to be like other Christians, He's looking for you to "follow" and be like Him.

Until next time,
-Pat-