John 12:26
Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me.
By saying that someone who serves Jesus must also follow Him, Jesus is drawing our attention to the difference in serving and following Him. Serving includes performing a set of duties and to be useful. When you serve, you don’t necessarily follow. Follow means to move in unison with someone, to imitate and engage with. Some might be doing a whole lot for the Lord and His Kingdom, yet not following Him.
Our generation automatically follows…we follow friends, pages, brands, organizations, etc. on Facebook, Twitter, Insta and others. In fact, we can also follow people who are not our friends. When we ‘follow’ them, we see their updates and activities. Likewise, if we are truly following Jesus, are we receiving His updates and His feeds? If not, we are probably just serving Him.
Jesus calls us to serve and follow Him. Meaning to be of assistance in His Kingdom and to His people as well as love them the way He loved them-by praying, teaching, encouraging, ministering, healing and showing compassion. Most often, serving is easy but doing what Jesus did is not. How can you love everyone? Especially those who have no good intentions towards you, who will even trade your life if possible, behind your back? Answer:Just like Jesus did. May we not consider the honour we receive from people more than the call of the Lord over their life.
Let’s click the refresh button on our spiritual lives and make a firm decision to ‘follow’ Jesus from this day on. Let’s seek His heart and His thoughts. Let’s seriously make it our motto to do what Jesus did. Jesus went up to the mountain top to pray. We can start #followingJesus by getting into a quiet place and spending some quiet time with Him. Jesus had compassion towards people. Let’s show some love by #followingJesus.
Dear Lord, we ask you to guide us, lead us and strengthen us to serve, follow and love you with all of our hearts, all of our minds and all of our soul. In Jesus’ Name! Amen!
