“Follow Me”

Remember the game follow the leader?   I remember following and doing what the leader did ahead of me.

Lately I’ve been struggling with what it means to follow Christ. I know I have lost the game if to follow Christ means the same thing as the game “follow the leader”.

After much soul searching I believe it does!

When we follow the leader we first need to know the leader,  we must have a relationship with him/her.   It can be a brand new relationship or a long term relationship, but there must be a relationship! Otherwise those playing the game would be like, “Who’s that dude?”

Then we have to go where the leader leads…. That’s kinda the point,  but not only that…. we need to do what he does!

As a kid that looked like flapping your arms,  spinning around,  or even picking your nose!

Following The Leader has taken on an all new meaning for me as a Follower of Christ!

So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father[a] does, that the Son does likewise. 20 For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing. And greater works than these will he show him, so that you may marvel.
John 5:19-20

What I see in this scripture is that Jesus followed the leader.  He followed God the Father, in fact He could do nothing without following what His Father was doing!

The Father’s relationship with The Son was so intimate, that The Son knew, saw what He was doing.

Do we as Christians have such an intimate relationship with our God so we can know what He is doing? The answer is, not on the same level as Christ did with his Father, but we have the helper, the Holy Spirit!

Jesus was always praying, always studying, always listening with/to His Father. He knew His Father intimately!

For us as believers we need to follow His lead….. Pray…… Study……. Listen! We need to hang out with the friends of the Father also, because He’s told them stuff about Himself that maybe we haven’t found out yet. They’ll fill us in!

Just as God loved Jesus and wanted him to be a partner in the family business, God loves us as his adopted children and wants us to join Him in His work! And He is working, all the time, all around us!

We need to understand this, because it makes all the difference! God wants us to be successful for His kingdom’s sake, and our growth! So we can step out into our world knowing God is working in the lives of those around us!  He puts us in position to succeed!  He knows what we can handle.

The more intimate our relationships within the family of God, the more familiar we will be with His work!

Jesus showed us prayer, quiet time with God and we must follow by doing the same, more frequently! Jesus depended completely on God and so must we!

Don’t be like the Nike add and “just do it”, rather trust in God and do it!

With the start of the baseball season I have caught a glimpse of how I think God uses His adopted children.

I’ve been watching how the Pittsburgh Pirates have been handling their young pitchers.

They coddle them, wanting them to succeed. Thru various levels of minor leagues, they work on fundamentals, perfecting their delivery, finding their best value for the team, are they a reliever or starter! Are they good against lefties or righties?  While the pitchers get more comfortable with their individual skills, the manager sees their capabilities and hones them.

You see the manager knows and uses them appropriately! And so it is with God in involving us in His work! He knows our skill set and wants us to succeed.

So let’s join him and get in the game and follow the leader!

Ponderous thought on your journey today; what if God knew what He was doing when He put you into a relationship with that person. You know which person I’m talking about!

Trust God and join in what He’s doing!