FOLLOW THOU ME
FOLLOW THOU ME
The great desire of our Lord is that we should follow Him, and the true heart is never fully happy nor right except when following Him. Our joy, usefulness, and growth depend on our following Him. Could anything so fully delight you as following Him in His path and ways through this evil world? The faithful spaniel knows no greater pleasure than following his master, however arduous and perilous the journey. In following, it is not the greatness of my zeal, or the [p. 234] extent of my work; but am I in the path that He went? If I know He has gone this way, I follow. I consider not what I have to encounter; my sole desire is to ascertain the way He went; and then, regardless of consequences, not thinking of them, I follow Him.
If there be any shade of reserve between Him and me, I cannot follow Him. When I follow Him, I am in unclouded intimacy with Him. It is a great incentive to me that He desires it; as the master’s whistle to the spaniel, so is His voice to me. My heart desires it more than anything. See how our blessed Lord secured it with regard to Peter in Luke 5. Peter was zealous, using his time and means in the Lord’s service, and subject to His word, but he was not yet following Him. This was produced in a very remarkable way. Peter was toiling for fish. The Lord gave them to him in great abundance. For the first time in the light of His presence, Peter learned that though sinful, the Lord was better to him than the fish; then it was he left all and followed Him. That was his start. Then he tasted for the first time what it was to find the Lord superior to every natural thing. But he had not yet learnt fully to follow Him.
I first find, like Peter, that when I am sensibly unfit for the Lord, He clears me of all fear. His love is perfected with me; but I require, subsequent to this, like Peter, to discern the worthlessness of self, where naturally I am most confident in myself. Hence when the same Peter avows that he will follow the Lord to death, the Lord informs him that he would first deny Him. Who can estimate the sting of sorrow in the heart which had tasted of the unparalleled joy of following the Lord, to feel that in any way, by word or deed, I should deny Him? But Peter will get the desire of his soul, blessed be God; and though he goes a fishing again (John 21), his heart through grace must find its object. The Lord, after they had dined, washed Peter’s feet by exposing the self-confidence which had led to [p. 235] the break between them; and having commissioned him to feed His sheep, His lambs - sure evidence now that his heart is true to Him - He says, “Follow thou me”.
The Lord give you to know the present and eternal sweetness and delight to His heart, and to your own, in following Him.