Today’s Encouragement is, “And he said to them, ‘Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.’ Immediately they left their nets and followed him.” Matthew 4:19-20 ESV
Follow Me –
Several times, Jesus spoke these two words to people. Here it was Simon and Andrew, later, Matthew and many others. However, there are many reports of people who, having been invited to follow Him, turned away. They each had a choice!
We do too! We have a choice: to follow Him or not. The road He walks is narrow; there’s only one way to follow Jesus, but there are many other roads, other options too. But He clearly warned us, they lead to death! (Matthew 7:14)
Of course, we all said “Yes, Lord,” when He invited us to follow Him. We are His! Yet daily, even many times each day, we are faced with opportunities to follow, or not.
As one example, Peter denied even knowing Jesus, three times (Luke 22:57! Yet even after this, Jesus invited him to return to Him and to ‘feed His sheep.’ (John 21:17)
– Jesus invites us to follow Him; we either do, or we don’t.
– Following Him is a narrow road; the alternatives are many and varied, but all end badly.
– Jesus extends grace to those who choose to follow Him, repeatedly forgiving them and reasserting the clarion call, “Follow Me!”
Father, we choose now, again, this day, this moment, to respond “Yes, I will follow Jesus.” Show us what this entails today, help us now, to take the next right step in faithfully following Jesus.
Follow
Passion and Melodie Malone
Today’s Encouragement 