a Reminder to Follow Jesus!

The Lord Jesus had a simple and profound way of calling his disciples.  He said, “follow me”. It reminds me of the days before GPS.  Sometimes there was more than 1 car going somewhere so you had to choose someone who knew the best way to get there.  Everyone else had to follow them.  For 3 ½ years, Jesus gathered disciples with the simple instruction – “follow me”.  And they did.  Through good days and turbulent nights.  They followed him as he preached on mountainsides, and as he argued with critics.  They followed him as he healed sick people and as he kicked back with sinners.  There were times he told them where he was going and they balked. There were other times when they wanted to go do something different and he said no.  And there was a time when he took some on a mountain top and showed them a vision from heaven.  They followed Jesus – and were blessed.

Prayer

God of all creation, we bow our hearts before you and worship you.  We honor you because you know all things, past, present and future.  You brought forth our ancestors from the dust of the ground and breathed life into them.  You strengthened our mothers from ancient times to endure birth pains to usher innumerable babies into this world.  You marshalled your angels to protect humanity from evil intentions of the enemy and one another.  We honor you Lord, because you knew it would be us who are praying to you right now, and you know our path.  So we are here recognizing you as our eternal guide, and we are committing to follow you.  We follow you Lord because you have a much better vantage point than we do.  Your vision is perfect!  You see dangers that lie ahead.  You see where the path gets rough so we need to be extra careful.  You see the curves in the road where we need to slow down.  You, Jesus, see when the weather will change and we need to be guided around, or even through the storms.  In your providence, you know where we need to be and when it’s the best time to get there.  So we follow you, with trust and faith.  And Lord, when inevitably we take our eyes off of you – when we get distracted by our own ambition or desires – we ask you to gently get our attention so that we are reminded that YOU LEAD – WE FOLLOW.  In Christ name we pray.  Amen.