Follow Me

When I was a kid we use to play a game called follow the leader. We were to do what the leader did, but the leader’s job was to trick his followers into not doing just as he did and the one who did follow and do everything was the winner. There are many that are following others. They follow them because they admire them and look up to them. I remember when God called me to preach, there was this preacher that I looked up to. I watched how he preached and what he did when he preached, I watched his hand movements his facial features and I had him down to a tee. The big night came when my Pastor asked me to preach; boy was I excited. When my Pastor turned the service over to me I started to imitate this other preacher, but it just didn’t seem right; I was paying too much attention to being someone else instead of what God wanted me to be. Not long into the message God spoke to my heart and said I didn’t call you to be someone else I called you to be you. That night everything changed and from that day forward I have just been me; my wife sometimes shakes her head when I say or do something that is just me, but I have never tried to be anyone except me from that night forward.  Now there is one that I love and admire deeply and want to follow Him and be like Him. The little phrase “follow me” is mentioned 22 times in the N.T. 20 out of those 22 times it is referring to following the Lord. We are also told we are to learn of Him. We do this because we know Him; you don’t follow after anyone you don’t know. You don’t learn after someone you have no interest in. We follow Him because we love Him and we learn of Him for we want to better serve Him. If we follow and learn of Him then we are going to love Him and when you love someone you build a relationship with them. Who better to follow and learn after and build a loving relationship with than the Lord Jesus Christ? When I think about that I am reminded of a saying I heard years ago that I have never forgotten. It says “you can have as much as you want or as little as you are satisfied with.” That being said how far do we want to follow Him? How much do we want to learn about Him? How much do we want to love Him?