The Weekly Walk – January 13, 2012
As i start this year, i’ve been thinking more and more about following. not leading but trying to follow more. wondering what it would be like to follow more and let God lead more. we as humans desire so much to be the ones that make the decisions, the ones that continually think that we have the right decisions in mind, the right roads to take. do we?
i have john eldredge to thank for this current thought process. i’ve been reading a little bit of “Waking the Dead” and got to a part about discipleship, what does it mean to be a disciple? it means to be a follower, to surrender all that we are and all that we believe and follow. just follow. not follow the idea of God, not follow just His principles and thoughts, but to follow God. to follow who He is more than anything else.
i’ve been praying more to actually know the real Jesus, i don’t want to miss who He really is. i think there’s more to Him than what we know right now. i hope there’s more, He is God after all. not just a thought or an idea, He is the God of heaven and earth, the God who cares so much about us. the God who longs so much to be more of a part of our lives here on Earth.
I wrote a song a while back called “I Will Follow”, the lyrics say this:
I know there’s something just beyond the headlights, Somebody I’m supposed to be
I know there’s got to be a reason that I’m here, But right now it’s so hard to see
This road feels like it’s leading me nowhere
But nowhere is still somewhere You want me to be
IF YOU SHOW ME THE WAY I WILL FOLLOW
IF YOU SHOW ME THE WAY I WILL FOLLOW YOU
I think there are times when we forget that God is always here, watching, waiting, guiding, loving, wanting so desperately to be closer to us. we get wrapped up in our own lives, we forget that Jesus calls us to be disciples. Followers of Christ. Followers that reach out to Him daily….
I want to work on this more. I pray for this more. I pray for a more obedient heart, more of a desire to live this way.
I’m going to try and follow a little more and leave the leading to someone who can actually see beyond the headlights.
“I Will Follow” is available on dave’s indieheaven page by clicking here
Posted on January 14, 2012 by Dave Pettigrew in
Geat post Dave. Great becasue I think the idea we have in the western world of what I disciple is is far removed from what Jesus intended. In Jesus’ day, a disciple was more than someone who followed a rabbi – it was someone who spent every waking moment with the rabbi in an effort not just to know what the rabbi knew or do what they did – but to be just like them.
The Hebrew word we translate as disciple is talmid – and it means so much more than following. It is someone who is following and walking with the rabbi in an effort to be what the rabbi is – think Elijah and Elisha.
God gives you his Word to follow, empowers you with his Holy Spirit and acces to him through Jesus. The course is not whether or not we CAN be a disciple … bu whether or not we WANT to be.
Praying for you mate.
Thanks Cynde! I tried cimnentomg on one of your blogs, but I couldn’t figure out how. Anyway, it was great.
This is one of the hard things for me right now honestly Dave. What does it LOOK like when we are following God? We hear the voice, we get up and go. The disciples did that when they were with him, but the spirit hadn’t really been sent out until after Jesus went to Heaven. After that he gave them something to do. In the “end times” that we live in, the in between of Jesus Ascension and his ultimate return – what does “following” look like, when we’re also given a “go and I will be with you always” command? I’m struggling with that personally right now as I work with small congregations just trying to keep the doors open while (in my opinion), working with very small visions, small hopes and small dreams to balance the study of God’s word and the idea of Being and Bringing Jesus to other people.
I wrestle with this tension A LOT and I know I’m out of balance a bit right now. Good thoughts
Yes. That says it all. Please keep on doing what you are doing. Praying for you and your fmaily.