Follow Me

Question for the day: how many YouTube channels do you subscribe to? How many people do you follow on Facebook? How many people follow you? We’re an obsessive generation, aren’t we? We need to know what’s going on with all of our friends – what they’re doing today, who they’re with, where they are. And we want them to know the same things about us. Nearly everyone has some kind of presence on the Internet and nearly everyone finishes any kind of post with the words “make sure to follow me!” or “hit the subscribe button below!” 

Have you ever thought about the fact that the first request to be “followed” was made by God Himself? In Genesis 12:1, God told Abraham to go “unto a land that I will shew thee.” And Abraham went, following God. Later, the Israelites, led by Moses, physically followed God as He led them from Egypt in a fiery or cloudy pillar (Ex. 13:21-22). Jesus’ call to His disciples began with the simple words, “Follow me,” (Matt. 4:19) and in Matthew 11:28 Jesus declares that anyone who wants to can come and follow Him. But, how do we do that? We want rest and peace, to know God’s heart and to follow Him, but it’s not like God has a “subscribe” or “follow” button. It’s not like you get notifications on your phone every time God wants to say something. It’s not like He has an account where He posts the Verse of the Day for you. 

Think about this for a sec. When you “follow” someone or something on Facebook or other social media platform, what is it that you do? Now, I don’t have a Facebook account, so forgive me if I get this wrong, but you probably get notified in some way that a new post was made, right? Depending on who it is, you read it with interest, you look at their pictures and like or dislike or ignore. Maybe you look forward to what they have to say, for whatever reason. But, obviously, God doesn’t have that, right? Well, maybe He doesn’t have an online presence, but He did write a Book that contains everything we need to know about how to follow Him! Do you read His Word every morning? Do you look forward to what He’s going to share with you, just for today? The Bible is the best place to start following Him. But there’s more to it, really, and in Matthew 16:24-26 Jesus explains just how to follow Him. 

First, you’ve got to want to follow Him. Verse 24 says “If any man will come after me…” Honestly, I think it’s pretty safe to say that if you’re reading this, you want to follow Jesus. But, you might be thinking right now (like I used to do!) that you want to, but you don’t really want to because you want to do other things in your life. Now, maybe I’m simple and naïve, but I don’t believe there’s such a thing as “want” and “really want.” There’s want and don’t want. There are some things you might want more than other things, or things you want that you don’t know you want, but that’s still wanting. So my question right now isn’t “how much do you want to follow Jesus”; it’s just “do you want to follow Jesus?” and there’s a simple answer: yes or no. Once you decide that, you can move onto the next “how” in following Jesus. 

You have to deny yourself and take up your cross. We hear this all the time, but what does it look like in our lives? Well, I can’t give you a specific answer. I can tell you that in the verse right before He says to deny yourself and all that, Jesus tells Peter that he savors the things of men (vs. 23). What “things of men” do you savor that need to be denied and crucified? I can’t dictate to you what those things might be. I could give suggestions, but the Holy Spirit is a whole lot better at that than I am, so I’ll leave that task to Him. When I first decided to follow Jesus, He told me to go to my parents and tell them I’d been cheating in school. I didn’t want to do that. I made up every excuse I could think of to justify why I could just skip that and go on to the next step. But there wasn’t any “next step” because I hadn’t taken the first one. When I finally denied myself the safety of secrecy and obeyed that step, God gave me the next step (which was another difficult one about going to my teachers). Eventually, the steps He asked me to take were less and less about getting right and more and more about thinking right and doing right, guiding me to the best choices to make about school and ministry. I look back at the last five years of my life and I can’t believe I’m where God has me right now, all because I denied the things of men in favor of the things of God. I could never have ordered my life like this, and I’m so glad I decided to follow Him. Whatever you’re holding onto in direct opposition to God, let it go. Stop defying God and start denying yourself. Kill those monsters of sin and follow Jesus. Which brings us to the final point. 

You have to follow Him. There are lots of voices in our lives: parents, teachers, pastors, books, blogs, friends. I’m not saying those things are wrong. We need guidance in our lives, we really do. Whenever I think of following God, I’m reminded of the children’s story Adam Raccoon in the Lost Woods, where Adam brings along nearly everything in his house on a hike with King Aaron. Along the way, he loses everything except a little red ball, and then, when the ball bounces away from the trail, Adam follows it into the woods and loses his way. He ends up being attacked by wolves but King Aaron saves him. All too often, we’re like Adam Raccoon and his little red ball. We follow the things that bring us temporary fulfillment instead of following the One Who gives us eternal satisfaction. 

Would you take some to consider: are you following Jesus? If not, why not? Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal what you need to do, and do it. God is not hard to get to, His voice is not hard to hear, and His will is not hard to know. The only reason we are not continuously victorious Christian young people is not because we don’t know the will of God. We usually know what He wants us to do, we just don’t do it. We end up lost and confused and under attack. Let’s be known as a generation of young people who follow God!