Little Rhyme with a Mighty Message
“Ye shall walk after the LORD your God, and fear him, and keep his commandments, and obey his voice, and ye shall serve him, and cleave unto him.” Deuteronomy 13:4
“Hey, you just follow the Lord,” I told my friend. “Let Him lead, and He’ll provide all that you need.” I had woken from a much needed nap, was still drowsy, and was somewhat surprised by what tumbled from my mouth. How it rhymed anyway. Maybe not so surprised by the message. I preach it often, don’t I? And try to live by it. Just not rhymed. My life is anything but rhymed. I tend to be all over the map. I’m not a run of the mill woman. But when it comes to Christ, I strive to walk His narrow path. By God’s Word. And, well, if the truth be told, it took me years to really get it. That this is how God wants us to live. Not just intellectually believing in Jesus as Lord and Savior. Oh, how hard it can be sometimes to remember this – not to mention to put it into practice. But how true. It was as though the Spirit of God had poured the words into me to give to my friend – but not just for her. For me also. And perhaps for you too.
Believing in Jesus as Lord is just the starting place. We’re born again when we repent and turn to God and His ways, believing Christ died on the cross for us and was raised by God from the dead, fully committing our lives to Christ. That commitment, if genuine, when we are truly born again, is followed by a life-long pursuit of Christ. A very lifestyle of learning how to follow Jesus, how to walk in fellowship with God, how to learn to be led by His Spirit instead of by our flesh and the ways of this world. And, when we follow Him, when we learn to yield to God and the Bible and His way of living life, then we discover all that we need really is in Christ and through Christ. It looks pretty on paper, doesn’t it? It sounds pretty when we speak the words to others, or write them, doesn’t it? But what does it mean in practical terms? It’s hard, isn’t it?
It means dying to self and living for Christ, saying no to what our flesh wants and yes to what God wants, listening for God’s voice by His Spirit in line with His Word instead of the voice of our flesh and the world. But oh, the blessedness of knowing we are in the will of the Lord when we learn breath by breath to surrender ourselves to Him and to follow His steps as He leads His followers forward in fellowship with Him forever.
Do you follow Jesus? Are you genuinely letting God lead?