By: Kate

Read: Numbers 32:1-33:39, Luke 4:31-5:11, Psalm 64:1-10, Proverbs 11:22

And as soon as they landed, they left everything and followed Jesus.
(Luke 5:11)

Relate: When my parents felt the calling to become missionaries, they had to leave everything behind. My mother was on her way to getting a PhD. My father had a promising career ahead of him. While they weren’t “rich,” they were still well off and were quite comfortable in America. Both of them had loving families that they didn’t want to leave behind, yet they did. 

In their late twenties, they left the life that they knew and headed off to the Philippines, following the will of the Lord. They had to learn a new language and culture; the familiar was all gone. They were thrust out of their comfort and into a world that was unrecognizable. 

React: Just like my parents, we all need to be willing to leave things behind in order to follow Jesus. This might not be in the form of selling everything and moving to a foreign country. There are, however, other things that one could give up for the Lord. Maybe old habits or dreams that don’t align with God’s will, or being willing to give up money and some of the nicer things in life. This could even be giving up time for prayer and meditation. Whatever it is, we all need to be able to see what is in our way; what might be hindering us from following Jesus.

Respond:

Dear Lord,
I pray that you might open my eyes to the things that are stopping me from fully following you. Help me to see that the things of this earth are worldly, and do not matter in comparison to your eternal glory. I want to follow you all the days of my life, so help me to not fall into the temptations of this world. Lord, you are all that matters; let me leave behind anything that I might be clinging to that is causing me to sin, or is keeping me from you.
Amen.