As a Christian, our whole goal should be to become more like Jesus. As a baby Christian, we feel pumped about it, we come out the gate like a roaring baby lion, ready to pounce on all things that are not like God. We tell everyone how good God is and that they should follow him, then we are met with both adversity and the things within us that we are not yet willing to let go, so for a moment, our pace becomes slow. That’s God helping us to work some things out, ya know.
God has this heavenly pace called grace that helps us endure our race; against time. This is something that I am constantly trying to learn and accept because ultimately, I want to be more like God than myself. However, He is perfect, and I am not, so I sometimes stumble on that, well I stumble on that a lot.
You see God knew us before we were even born, He knew us in our mother’s womb when we were being formed. He knew the mistakes we would make and the detours we would take and still, follow me, He says.
There is this notion the world has concocted, that we should prepare ourselves to come to God, that we first have to get ourselves together, that we should be pristine and clean before we can call out to Him. We don’t need to be perfect to follow Him, we just need to be willing, willing to give up everything that is not like Him. This is not an overnight thing, that’s why God invented grace. Like I said before, He already knew the mistakes we would make.
Following God is more about progression than it is about perfection. Your mistakes don’t stop God from using you, because it’s your mistakes that He wants to use. There were many times, I questioned, why me? I felt like it couldn’t be that He wanted to use me, I messed up more than I could explain, but it was then that God introduced me to His grace.
This journey I am on is so exciting, honestly it is an honor, for God to ask me to follow Him means more to me than anything in this world. Who would have known, so many years ago, He would have chosen this misunderstood girl? The thing is, we are His children, so He loves us all without any conditions.
Although I am the one taking the journey and it will change me more than I can imagine, it is least about me and more about who He wants to reach. Jesus is the ultimate example of what it looks like to live and die for the lost, after all, He is the one who showed us how to bare a cross.
I don’t follow Him because someone told me to, I follow Him for the same reasons you will one day too. First, because He saved me, over and over again. Second, because He loves me, even in the midst of my sin. Third, because He will never leave more nor forsake me. Fourth … I could go on and on about His love, grace, and His mercy, but honestly, it’s because He died for me, so that I could have life. Jesus is not a small part of my life, He is my life. Follow me, He says, and forever my answer will be yes!
For that reason, He set me apart from the rest, but trust me it came with some tests, and even though I fail sometimes, I give God my best.
This isn’t just for me, He wants this for you too and I know some have already been through, but this is for the one that God wants to speak to. He told me when you’re ready, He wants to bless you. It is time for you to leave the shore, He doesn’t want you to stand there admiring His beauty anymore, He has so much for you in store. It’s time for you to come forth. Follow me, He says.
Disclaimer: I am not saying following God is easy if you read between the lines, I stated it is not, but the bigger picture of it all it that it is always worth it. You get to become better, you get to experience a love that is true, the one our hearts long for. You will always have someone by your side and God didn’t ask us to just do it ourselves, He sent His son before us to do it too.
Helpful Scriptures:
Jeremiah 1:5 “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”
Psalm 139:13 “For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.”
John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
Matthew 16:24-26 “Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 25 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. 26 For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?”
