The Gift Is that We Get to Say Yes!

Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. Matthew 16: 24

“Leading is overrated…be a follower.” I read that clever line the other day at someone’s blog. Her purpose was, of course, to get people to follow her musings to increase traffic in her blog. However, it made me think of something completely unrelated which my husband and I were discussing on Sunday on our way home back from church.

Dan and I were talking about Spiritual gifts and how sometimes we become so stressed out in our feelings of inadequacy for believing the lie that we don’t have any gifts that we miss the point.

And what’s the point? The point is that the gift is that we get to hear Him saying “follow me.”

If we remember…what was the one thing that Jesus told His disciples when He was recruiting His unlikely “band of brothers”?

“Come, follow me,” Jesus said… Matthew 4: 19

Over and over Jesus told each of them, “follow me.” Get to know me. Love me. Love my children.

He didn’t call the disciples because they were the most gifted individuals. He knew they weren’t. He knew they were sinners. But He called them nonetheless. Then, He equipped them. 

The disciples said yes to Jesus and spent the next three years by His precious side learning about the Kingdom of God and above all, getting to know Him…learning to love Him…and learning to love His beloved. At the appointed time, the Holy Spirit came upon them so Christ would be in them always, even after He had ascended into heaven, and through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit they became fully enabled and equipped to do God’s work on earth. (Acts 2: 4)

What this means to us is that the true gift is the presence of the Holy Spirit in us. And because we who are His children have this priceless gift, another gift comes right with it…the gift that we get to hear Him saying: “follow me.” And from that, yet another gift…the gift that we get to say “yes, Lord. I will follow You.” 

The gift is that we get to follow Him and in doing so we get to know Him, love Him and love His beloved. And as our heart becomes a willing follower, He will lead us where He wants us.

So I guess that clever blogger was correct, after all. We are to become followers. Followers of the Way, the Truth and the Life! He will let us know what to do once we get on the road with Him.

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