Follow Me

Read: Judges 6:11-23, Matthew 4:18-22 

We know the age-old truth that saying goodbye is hard. Leaving something we want to hold on to, stepping into something unknown – it may never be easy. Yet that is often what exercising our faith requires – leaving something behind in order to step out into something new.  

It’s exactly what Jesus called those who followed Him to do. Fishing was all these disciples had ever known. It was their livelihood. Their family business. Their security. And they could have given all these excuses to Jesus. It sounds like many of the excuses we often give Him. Yet, they didn’t offer these – or any – excuses. The way the gospel accounts read, it seems like the didn’t even hesitate. They immediately left all they had ever known behind to follow Him.  

Gideon on the other hand, he did offer up a few excuses. He let his fear and anxiety cloud his view. For if he really had considered Who was calling Him, would he have hesitated so much? Would we?   

The fear of leaving what we’ve known behind – or simply the task of leaving our fear behind – can be overcome by realizing that the One we are leaving it for is better than anything we could ever hold on to in this world. He is worth letting it all go. The dream, the job, the home, the expectations, the fear, the idols – whether good or bad, everything God calls us to leave behind is for the purpose of carrying us to something even better.  

Jesus is our best example of this. If He had not left His throne in heaven to come to earth, we would not have salvation. Now, in that salvation, He calls us too to leave behind the things that will hold us back from His good and perfect will for us. He is always calling us deeper and farther into Himself – calling us to leave this world behind in an exchange for the eternal blessings He has for us.  

In our leaving behind and letting go, we can also be encouraged in the fact that the Lord has called us to something as well. And it’s not something He just makes up on the spot, it is something He has planned for us long before we could ever imagine; it is something He promises to equip us for. When the angel of the Lord greets Gideon, He calls him a “mighty warrior.” Meanwhile, Gideon was cowering in a winepress. The Lord called him into this position – this purpose He had for Gideon all along – and then equipped him for it. He was not a mighty warrior yet, but the Lord was faithful to His word and made him into one. The disciples were fishers of, well, fish when Jesus called them – but Jesus told them that they were going to be fishers of men (something they didn’t even know the meaning of at the time), and we see Him fulfill that calling throughout the gospels and the rest of the New Testament. We can trust that if God calls us to something, He will equip us for it. We may not feel like a mighty warrior, or a fisher of men, or a bold witness – but we can trust that the God who has called us those things will be faithful to transform us into them. He will stay true to His Word.  

In whatever He has called you to leave, and whatever He has called you to be – you can trust that His plan is good and His hand is with You through it all. As it was with Gideon. As it was with Peter, Andrew, James, and John; so it will be with us. Our God continues to be that good and faithful.  

In the past, what has God called you to leave behind in your life? What blessings did you see from obeying Him? 

Do you sense that He has called you to leave, or to do, something in your life right now? What steps can you take today in obedience? 



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