You Will Follow…Later

"Little children, I am with you a little while longer. You will seek Me; and as I said to the Jews, now I also say to you, 'Where I am going, you cannot come.'" ... Simon Peter said to Him, "Lord, where are You going?" Jesus answered, "Where I go, you cannot follow Me now; but you will follow later." Peter said to Him, "Lord, why can I not follow You right now? I will lay down my life for You." Jesus answered, "Will you lay down your life for Me? Truly, truly, I say to you, a rooster will not crow until you deny Me three times." John 13:33, 36-38

Peter did deny Jesus…three times. And then he cried—realizing what he had done. Are we like Peter? How do we deny Jesus? By not standing up for our Christian values…by laughing at TV sitcoms that make fun of our family values and standards…by turning away when we need to be helping someone…by not inviting our friends, coworkers and neighbors to special events at church…by not praying for the lost, whether they are in our home, neighborhood, community, country, or the world…or by not reading our Bible. The list goes on. If what we are doing is right and good, then it is for Jesus…but if not, then it is against Him, and thus denying Him. Life is tough. We have to make choices moment by moment to follow Him. Here are a couple of verses to help point us in the right direction:

They profess to know God, but by their deeds they deny Him, being detestable and disobedient and worthless for any good deed. Titus 1:16
If we endure, we will also reign with Him; If we deny Him, He also will deny us… 2 Timothy 2:12

Jesus and His disciples discussed a similar situation earlier in His ministry. John said, "Master, we saw someone casting out demons in Your name; and we tried to prevent him because he does not follow along with us." But Jesus said to him, "Do not hinder him; for he who is not against you is for you."  Luke 9:49-50. The same goes with us…we should encourage those who are for Christ…even if they are not sitting beside us at church. But take the log out of our eye, before we take the splinter out of someone else’s eye (Luke 6:42).  Choose the narrow path and do what is right.

RSVP: Jesus is inviting you today to do what is right and follow Him. Are you willing to do that? How will you respond to His invitation today?

Prayer~ Dear God, You told us to mark out a straight path for our feet and to stay on the safe path. (Proverbs 4:26 NLT) Open our eyes that we would see the path that You would have us walk along…that we would do what is pleasing to You…the right and good things that You want us to do. We praise You for Your hand of mercy on our lives.

© 2014 by Mickey M. Hunacek. All rights reserved.

All scripture quoted from the New American Standard Bible (NASB) unless otherwise