In the last few years, God has launched me on some projects that I never would have dreamed of working through on my own. And usually when He brings them up, I laugh and tell Him there’s no chance of my ever doing that! He kindly responds that He is setting the footsteps down in front of me—I only need to walk in them.
That’s what has brought me to the word God is giving me this year—Follow.
I am not very good at following, I’ve decided. I either cower in fear and sit in the corner in paralysis, or I run ahead thinking that it’s all up to me and I better get it all figured out myself. Following is much more of a step-by-step sort of walking, and the pace is determined by the one you are following. The direction is as well. That feels a little out of control, doesn’t it? He is the One who directs and sets the pace. I need only follow.
The truth is that the control I think I have is really just an illusion, and it’s much better to recognize this lack of control—but also to see that I can follow the One who does know the future and does keep putting me in the best place to know Him. He knows what that place is, not me.
I was reading recently the passage in Genesis 12:1 where God tells Abram to leave it all behind. The Passion Translation says that this leaving behind was really for the purpose of finding out who he was supposed to be. We are not called out from somewhere just to grieve us. We are called in order to move into the place where we are more truly ourselves. This blows my mind.
Abram was called to leave the land he knew, the family that remained (some came with him) and the lifestyle (idols and such) in order to go where God was directing him. That must have been incredibly scary. God was promising a new life and a new way of doing life, but he had to be willing to leave the past behind.
I’m reminded of when Jesus calls the disciples in the gospels, and He just says “Come and follow me.” He doesn’t lay out the plan, prepare them for the worst-case scenarios or give them the technical details of how He was going to go about life with them. They were to simply follow.
I am also called to follow Him, but He makes the deal sweeter by telling me that through His indwelling Spirit, He will also empower me to do the things He asks. My job is to choose. His strength wraps around my choice and moves me ahead, showing me as we go how He’s already laid out so much in front of me. But I won’t see it until I make the choice to follow.
Last year, I organized and led a women’s retreat that was really scary for me. There was a big financial commitment, and I wasn’t sure anyone would show up! But God kept telling me He was laying down the footsteps in front of me, and I just had to put one foot in front of the other in them. And He brought it to pass!
I imagine those old dance step charts that had footsteps on the floor which you followed in order. When you follow them, you dance. But if you cower or try to move ahead too quickly, you miss out on the dance.
Whatever footsteps God is laying down in front of you, will you choose to walk in them? He promises to empower you to accomplish the thing He is asking of you—you simply need to follow Him.
Now Yahweh said to Abram: “Leave it all behind—your native land, your people, your father’s household, and go the land that I will show you.” Genesis 12:1
Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If you truly want to follow me, you should at once completely reject and disown your own life. And you must be willing to share my cross and experience it as your own, as you continually surrender to my ways. For if you choose self-sacrifice and lose your lives for my glory, you will continually discover true life. But if you choose to keep your lives for yourselves, you will forfeit what you try to keep. Matthew 16:24-25