Whatever you do, keep following Jesus
Over many years, I’ve talked to lots of people about what their hopes and dreams for the future are. Sometimes they have very detailed plans about what they want to do and how they plan to achieve all their goals. But somewhere along the line, things don’t always work out the way they had planned. (They needed to keep following Jesus.)
Other people I’ve talked to really don’t know what they want to do in life. They just go from one thing to the next with no real sense of direction.
And unfortunately there are some folks who, because they have no idea of what they want to do, or they’ve tried something and it didn’t work out, they withdraw from life. They give up on trying to work toward a goal or discovering and fulfilling a sense of purpose in life.
Do you know where you’re going?
Do any of these attitudes describe you at all? I can certainly relate to the first two. In high school and college, I had a strong sense of purpose. I thought of all the great things I was going to do with my life and the kinds of jobs I would have to accomplish these goals.
But when things didn’t work out at all as I had imagined, I fell into the second approach just a bit. I didn’t know what to do. I had failed to accomplish my big dreams and goals and I desperately tried to figure out what to do with my life.
How would I make enough money to support my family? How would I find a job or career that would be fulfilling and not compromise my moral and spiritual values? How could I be true to myself and obedient to God and at the same time figure out what my higher purpose really was, since it wasn’t what I had planned it to be? I tried one thing after another, but didn’t seem to be getting anywhere.
And once in a while, during some challenging times, I found myself in that third camp of not really knowing at all what I wanted to do, or rather what God wanted me to do, and almost wanted to quit trying. I didn’t know where I was going and so I didn’t know what steps to take.
Never give up
Fortunately, I never really gave up on trying to figure all this out. Even though there were some desperate and challenging moments at times, I never felt hopeless for very long.
The thing that gave me hope and kept me going, more than anything else, was my basic faith in God, praying for direction, and digging into my Bible study on a regular basis.
When you don’t know where you’re going, there’s no way to know if you ever get there.
One of my favorite stories in the Old Testament where someone asked God to guide him to the right place is when Abraham asked his most trusted servant to return to his homeland and find a wife for his son Isaac. You can read this whole story in Genesis, Chapter 24.
Abraham tells his servant to find a wife for Isaac not just from his homeland but from among his relatives. This was no small request. Not quite like finding a needle in a haystack, but almost. There were obviously no maps or GPS back then like we have today.
Finding Abraham’s family could prove to be very difficult.
If you had been asked to do this monumental task, what would you have done? You knew the general direction to go in, but what next?
A simple prayer
This trusted servant of Abraham must have learned from his master what he needed to know about how to proceed. When he got to a well of water in the general vicinity of where Abraham’s family lived, he prayed for God’s help.
Then he prayed, “LORD, God of my master Abraham, make me successful today, and show kindness to my master Abraham. See, I am standing beside this spring, and the daughters of the townspeople are coming out to draw water. May it be that when I say to a young woman, ‘Please let down your jar that I may have a drink,’ and she says, ‘Drink, and I’ll water your camels too’—let her be the one you have chosen for your servant Isaac. By this I will know that you have shown kindness to my master.” Genesis 24:12-14 NIV
And that is exactly what happened. When Rebekah, who was the granddaughter of Abraham’s brother, came to the well, she offered the servant a drink and then offered to give water to his camels.
God had led Abraham’s servant to the exact right spot and guided everyone involved. In the end, Rebekah agreed to go back with this stranger and become Isaac’s wife.
When you don’t get an answer, keep following Jesus
Now you may be thinking: Hey James, this is great that it all works out that way, but I’ve asked God for guidance and not really felt my prayers were heard. What if God hasn’t told me what to do or where to go?
Well, I can sure relate to that. There have been times when I prayed long and hard about where to go and what to do, but got no definitive answers. I don’t know about your specific situation, but whenever this has happened to me, it was usually because I wasn’t really ready to hear what God said to me. I wasn’t willing to let go of my own ideas about what I wanted to do or not do, and it was hard to hear God’s guidance because my own opinions were like earwax in my ears, preventing me from hearing clearly.
When I’ve gotten my pride, my fear, and my preconceptions out of the way, I’ve usually heard God’s voice more clearly.
God will lead you
God says through the prophet Isaiah,
I will lead the blind by ways they have not known, along unfamiliar paths I will guide them; I will turn the darkness into light before them and make the rough places smooth. These are the things I will do; I will not forsake them. Isaiah 42:16 NIV
This promise from God doesn’t just apply to someone who is literally blind. Sometimes we are spiritually blind to what God’s will is for us. But God can and will lead you anyway, sometimes without you even realizing it.
But here again, you may be thinking: Hey James, I just don’t hear God’s voice directing me or even feel I’m going in the right direction. I don’t know what to do, where to go, or how to get there.
Dig in to your Bible and keep following Jesus
Here’s where we need more than just our prayers. We need to dig deep into the Bible for answers. Now, by that I don’t mean you should just memorize a bunch of Bible verses, quote them all the time, and somehow think just repeating them will show you what to do and where to go.
It’s about putting the teachings of the Bible into practice, and more specifically, about following Jesus’s instructions.
If you’re trying to make a decision about what to do, whether it’s a small thing or a life changing event, find something that Jesus says to do and do it. In fact, don’t do just one thing Jesus said, do as many of them as you can.
If you’ve been listening to The Bible Speaks to You Podcast for a while, you’ve probably heard me say this before. When you don’t know what to do, when you’re trying to figure out God’s purpose for you (and yes, you have a God-given and God-ordained purpose) and you’re not just deciding what you want to do with your life without God’s input, one of the most helpful things you can do is to simply follow Jesus, to the best of your ability, in every detail of your life.
And one of the best places to start is to read the Sermon on the Mount, Chapters 5, 6, and 7 in Matthew, make a list of everything Jesus says to do, and then make every possible effort to do these things.
As I said, I’ve mentioned this several times on the podcast. So this is not a new idea. But it works.
Why should I keep following Jesus?
Now you may be wondering why doing what Jesus talks about in the Sermon on the Mount will help you know what job to take, what school to go to, who to marry, or any other life choice you’re trying to make.
It’s actually quite simple. When you keep following Jesus by obeying his teachings, you are going somewhere, somewhere much more important than what career, school, or spouse you’ll pick.
Let’s say you’re trying to decide whether you should leave one job and find another because the boss at your current job is critical and judgmental of you, and never gives you credit for all the good things you’ve done for the company.
So here you are reading the Sermon on the Mount trying to follow Jesus’s teachings and wouldn’t you know it, there it is plain and simple. Jesus says,
“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that?” Matthew 5:43-47 NIV
That is not what you were looking for. Why should you love your mean boss and pray for him?
To keep following Jesus means to love your enemies
Well, Jesus knew that was the only way you could actually find peace in your heart. When your heart is at peace, the mental clutter and clatter dissolve and you’ll hear God’s voice in a fresh new way.
But don’t take my word for it. Try this for yourself.
If you leave your current job with resentment and a victim mentality toward your boss, you’ll take that attitude with you to your next job to some degree. But when you keep following Jesus to the best of your ability right where you are, it will bring healing to your heart, and it just might bring healing to the whole negative atmosphere at work. But if not, God will show you the next step.
If you don’t see what that next step is, just keep following Jesus. Find something else in the Sermon on the Mount, or something Jesus says or does somewhere else in the Gospels, and do that. Keep following Jesus.
The real destination is not so much a specific human event, project, career choice, marriage partner, or even a life purpose. Those thing are really important, but the real destination is simply to follow Christ in your daily life, to be Christlike in every way possible.
Just keep following Jesus
Why is it so important to follow Jesus? Why will this give clarity to your life when you don’t know where you’re going or how to get there? Because the more you keep following Jesus and obey his teachings, the more you are aware of God being with you and guiding you.
For example, when I started my prison ministry, I thought I was going to help the inmates and teach them about the Bible. In my mind, it was all about me helping them know the Bible better, follow Jesus better, and understand their relationship with God better. It was all about what I was going to do for them.
When I’d been going to the prison for several months, my perspective changed. I was overcome with a deep sense of love and compassion for the people who came to my Bible study. As it turned out, they were helping me just as much or more than I was helping them.
It made me think about the way Jesus reacted when he saw crowds of people not knowing where to go.
When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began teaching them many things. Mark 6:34 NIV
Sheep without a shepherd don’t know where to go. When you have the compassion in your heart for the people you meet, the way Jesus had compassion for the people he met, then you’ll be able to help them just as Jesus did.
You are not a sheep without a shepherd
Have you ever felt like a sheep without a shepherd? Well, the great news is that Christ is always ready to shepherd you on your journey, whatever the circumstances are, whether you’ve just made the worst mistake or the best decision of your life.
You always have a shepherd in Christ. When you keep following Jesus, you will be guided each step of the way, sometimes without realizing it or without understanding how one step is preparing you for something bigger.
After about 10 years of being a full-time stay-at-home dad, I was trying to figure out what my next career should be. I needed to make some money and that was a big part of my decision process. I’m not sure how much I actually listened for God’s guidance in all my prayers at the time, because I was preoccupied with making enough money.
But God was still guiding me each step of the way. As it turned out, each thing I did, which seemed to me at the time to be an answer to prayer, was not the end result I was looking for, but just a stepping stone and a preparation for what I’m doing now.
Four years of being a voice-over artist prepared me for recording and editing my podcast. Learning to market and promote my voice-over career prepared me to do the same for my podcast.
During that time I started doing Bible study at the Federal Correctional Institution in Danbury, Connecticut. As I said, I thought I was going to help the inmates, but God was training me how to talk about the Bible in a non-judgmental, non-dictatorial way, which is exactly what I needed. By teaching the Bible to others, I found confidence and a way to share what God was teaching me from the Bible.
You may be on one of the stepping stones God has put in your path. It may seem like the final destination for a time, but it may just be a place where God is teaching you something you’ll need later when all the puzzle pieces come together.
How to keep following Jesus
I want to come back to this idea to keep following Jesus.
The more you do this, the more you’ll start thinking like Jesus. You’ll start to see things the way he did. You’ll start to love people the way he did. And you’ll start to bring God’s healing power to people the way he did.
What does it mean to think and see and love like Jesus did?
Jesus puts it right on the table for us.
Jesus gave them this answer: “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.
I can do nothing on my own. I judge as God tells me. Therefore, my judgment is just, because I carry out the will of the one who sent me, not my own will. John 5:19, 30 NIVFor I did not speak on my own, but the Father who sent me commanded me to say all that I have spoken. I know that his command leads to eternal life. So whatever I say is just what the Father has told me to say. John 12:49, 50 NIV
To keep following Jesus means to be connected with God
Since Jesus only did what he saw the Father do, that implies he was always watching the Father. Since Jesus only said what God told him to, that implies he was always listening for God’s voice. When Jesus says he couldn’t do anything on his own without God’s help, it means he relied completely on the Father.
Jesus was always asking God what to say and what to do. He was always watching what God was doing.
When you don’t know where you’re going or how to get there, keep following Jesus. Embrace his approach to the way you think, act, and speak.
What if you only did what you saw God doing? What if you only said what God told you to say? What if you only went where God told you to go?
You would always know exactly where to be, what to do, what to say. Always.
Yes, you can always keep following Jesus
Now, I know what you’re thinking, but this is not an impossibility. Paul promises us
…we have the mind of Christ. 1 Corinthians 2:16 NIV
You, at this very moment, and every moment, have the mind of Christ, the ability to think, act, and love like Jesus. What you do with this God-given ability to be like Jesus is up to you. It begins with one loving Christlike thought at a time, one compassionate Christlike action at a time.
It begins with moments of leaving behind your own opinions and preconceptions, your own will and personal desires for your life and surrendering to God’s will, God’s perspective, and God’s guidance.
The next time you’re not sure where to go, what to do, or how to get there, keep following Jesus. Find one thing and then another and another that Jesus tells you to do. Keep that up and God will reveal each next step you need to take.
_____________
James Early, the Jesus Mindset Coach, is a Bible teacher, speaker, and church mentor. He conducts Bible workshops online and in person. His focus is on getting back to the original Christianity of Jesus by learning to think, pray, and love like Jesus. Contact him here.
Make a donation to support the show
Listen and leave a review on
_____________
Bible References
Genesis 24:12-14 NIV
12 Then he prayed, “LORD, God of my master Abraham, make me successful today, and show kindness to my master Abraham.
13 See, I am standing beside this spring, and the daughters of the townspeople are coming out to draw water.
14 May it be that when I say to a young woman, ‘Please let down your jar that I may have a drink,’ and she says, ‘Drink, and I’ll water your camels too’—let her be the one you have chosen for your servant Isaac. By this I will know that you have shown kindness to my master.”
Isaiah 42:16 NIV
16 I will lead the blind by ways they have not known, along unfamiliar paths I will guide them; I will turn the darkness into light before them and make the rough places smooth. These are the things I will do; I will not forsake them.
Matthew 5:43-47 NIV
43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.
44 But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,
45 that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.
46 If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that?
47 And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that?
Mark 6:34 NIV
34 When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began teaching them many things.
Mark 6:34 NIV
34 When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began teaching them many things.
1 Corinthians 2:16 NIV
16 …we have the mind of Christ.
