The Following

 “… Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Matthew 4:19

As I sat down to have my devotions this morning, this was the first verse that came to my mind. Many of you know that I love word studies and word definitions. So, to begin, I went to the Merriam-Webster dictionary and found that the word follow literally has an entire page of definitions. Wow! Was I ever surprised!

Let me share a few brief definitions. To follow means to go or proceed; to act in accordance; to accept authority; to come into existence as a result of something; to copy after or to imitate; to watch steadily or attend closely to. Stop for a moment and let these steep in your brain. There is so much depth to this word that I never realized before! Do you see it as well?

Typically, in my devotions, I will look up other referenced verses in the middle column of my Bible. I will also use a Bible app to search for a word or phrase. This morning, I searched for “follow me.” It did not find many verses with this exact phrase, but I did find numerous verses that had some form of the word follow in them. I immediately latched on to some of those verses and that is what I want to share with you this morning.

First, in Matthew 4:19, we found the exact phrase of “follow me.” If those were the only two words in this verse, they would be enough. Do you not agree? Can you just hear your heavenly Father saying to you, “Follow me.” He does not need to expound, or explain, or clarify, or even justify why He wants you to follow or what He expects from you if you follow. Just simply, “Follow me.”

Secondly, I looked up Psalm 63:8 which says, “My soul followeth hard after thee …” Wow! I not only must follow my Father, but I also must follow “hard.” I must strongly desire. I must be extra alert and aware that I am on the right path. I must do all in my power and with His strength to follow hard and follow close.

Thirdly, I was blessed to read Proverbs 21:21 which says, “He that followeth after righteousness and mercy findeth life, righteousness, and honour.” Am I truly a follower? Or am I one who likes to lead … my way and in my time? I pray that God will help me to be a follower … so that I may find life (versus death), righteousness (morally right and free from sin), and honour (esteem from my Father)!

Fourth, and last, and on a rather soul-searching note, I read Matthew 10:38 “And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth [not] after me, is not worthy of me.” Here my heart stopped. Am I worthy of Christ? Yes, I claim Him as my Savior, but, is He my Lord as well?

Yes, I claim the name of Christ. I claim that I am a CHRISTian. But, do I follow Christ? Do I live a life that He wants me to live? Do I obey Him? For, to obey is to follow.

What about you, my friend? Do you need to find yourself on your knees, like I did, confessing your sin to your Father so that you can truly follow Him?