Follow Me

This 3-day devotional answers the question of "where to?" when Jesus calls us to follow Him.

In the book of Matthew in the Bible, Jesus first uttered the words, “Follow Me” in Matthew Chapter 4. He would go on to make this statement many times as He called His 12 disciples and various people He met in His ministry.

The word “follow” implies a movement from where you are now to somewhere else where the person leading you is taking you.

And so, if follow is about movement from point A to point B, a logical question to ask is “where are we moving to or where are we going?”

Jesus gave at least three clear answers to that question when He asked people to follow Him.

Day 1 - Separation to Reconciliation

First, move from separation from God to reconciliation with God:

In John 8:14, Jesus said: “For I know where I came from and where I am going...”

And where exactly did Jesus come from, and where was He going? The place that He was taking His followers? He answered it completely in John 14:6: “Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.”

Jesus’ whole purpose for existing was to move mankind back into a relationship with God that was severed in the garden of Eden when Adam and Eve sinned. He came to move us from being enemies of God to friends of God; move us from darkness and death - which are the consequences of being God’s enemies - to light and life.

But that movement is only possible through belief in Jesus. If you want light in your life, if you want the assurance of eternal life, of knowing there is more to your life than this momentary blip, then you have to follow Jesus.

If you’ve never made the decision to follow Him, NOW is the best time for you to do so. And you can do this with me now, by praying this prayer: "God, I confess that I am a sinner and have been your enemy. I confess that the path I have been following till now is only leading to darkness and eternal death. But today, I’m taking a new path. I choose to follow Jesus. I believe He died for my sins, I believe He rose up from the dead and is reigning with You in Heaven. And I believe He is leading me to You and to eternal life in Heaven with You. In Jesus’ name, I pray. Amen."

If you said this prayer, I want to be the first to welcome you to the family of God!! You just made the best decision you will ever make in your life. Learn more about what's next in your relationship with God.

Day 2 - Profession to Commission

The second way Jesus answered this question of “where are we going?” is by telling them to move from earthly profession to divine commission:

When Jesus called Andrew and Peter to be His disciples in Matthew 4:18-19, He said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.”

He told them, and the other disciples He would meet, to leave their earthly professions - being fishermen, tax collectors, etc. - for a heavenly commission.

And that commission is sharing the message with the world that it needs a Savior, that Jesus Christ is that one and only Savior, and that the best way to live life is by believing in and obeying Jesus.

Making sure that they didn’t miss this commission was so important to Jesus that in Matthew 28:19-20 He repeated it to His followers right before He ascended to Heaven after His resurrection.

After we become saved and are assured of making Heaven, the next task in our journey with Jesus is to bring as many people with us as we can to Heaven.

Interestingly, in the book of Matthew, one of Jesus’ most famous teachings, the Sermon on the Mount, comes immediately after Jesus calls the 12 disciples to follow Him.

Early on in the Sermon, in Matthew 5:13-16, Jesus explains why He’s about to tell them for the next two chapters to live life in a way that was very different from what they had ever known. He says those who follow Him must be salt and light in the world so that they can have an impact on the world.

And the only impact Jesus cares about is that our lives would lead to others glorifying God.

For a lot of us, we let our secular profession or the profession we want to enter into define our identity. But with the call to “follow me,” Jesus is asking us to stake our identity into something that is more lasting, more meaningful, more worthy - the Great Commission. Having a job is good, but don’t let it define who you are or what your path in life should be. The job is a means to an end. The end is sharing the Gospel with everyone that God places along your path.

Sarah Lolond, a recent college graduate, wrote this: “After college, I attached so much of my worth in [getting a job] in my industry that it felt like the bottom dropped out when I didn’t succeed right away. I wish I would have realized sooner that you’re more than the job you have or don’t have, that work is just a part of God’s design for us—not the definition of who we are as people.”

Day 3 - Rebellion to Submission

The third way Jesus answered this question of “where are we going?” is by simply saying “Move as I move or Do as I do:”

Back in the day, before everyone had GPS in their cars and phones, if you wanted to get somewhere you’d never been before, you either used a paper map, have someone write down or give you directions, or you followed behind someone in their car as they guided you to the location. If you follow someone, you don’t determine the where and how of the journey; the person leading you determines that. If they turn left, you turn left. If they slow down, you slow down.

In the same way, if you’ve decided to follow Jesus to eternal life with God, you no longer determine the journey of your life. Jesus becomes the Lord who directs your decision making and His ways of doing things become your way of living life.

Jesus' way of doing things can be found in the Bible, through the Holy Spirit that lives in us, and the various ways God speaks to us to know how we’re supposed to follow Jesus.

It’s one thing to know the end point of your destination in following Jesus, which is reconciliation to God, it’s another thing to actually move in a way that leads you there. We read in the Bible that not everyone Jesus called to follow Him actually did (e.g. the rich young ruler), and some who did, wanted to get to the destination in their own way (e.g. Judas Iscariot) and, as far as we know, it did not end well for either group.

I love how The Message version in Matthew 7:24-29 describes the importance of living our lives in the way that Jesus directs us to:

“These words I speak to you are not incidental additions to your life, homeowner improvements to your standard of living. They are foundational words, words to build a life on. If you work these words into your life, you are like a smart carpenter who built his house on solid rock. Rain poured down, the river flooded, a tornado hit—but nothing moved that house. It was fixed to the rock.

“But if you just use my words in Bible studies and don’t work them into your life, you are like a stupid carpenter who built his house on the sandy beach. When a storm rolled in and the waves came up, it collapsed like a house of cards.”

When Jesus concluded his address, the crowd burst into applause. They had never heard teaching like this. It was apparent that he was living everything he was saying—quite a contrast to their religion teachers! This was the best teaching they had ever heard.

I love that whole passage, but the phrase that really exemplifies this whole idea of us moving as Jesus moves is when it says: “It was apparent that he was living everything he was saying.”

When Jesus was about to be crucified and He knew He would ascend to heaven shortly after His resurrection, he said to His followers in John 13:15: “I have given you an example to follow. Do as I have done to you.” This example He was talking about was not just the act of washing their feet that He had just completed, but also the way He had lived His incredible 33 years on Earth.

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