“Righteousness will go before Him, And shall make His footsteps our pathway.”
-Psalm 85:13, nkjv
As a Christian I think I have romanticized what it is to walk in the footsteps of Jesus. To be sure, being one with the Lord—as Jesus prayed in John 14–fills us with peace that passes all understanding. But if you think about the places, the circumstances, and the people Jesus met while He was here on earth, it is clear that it was not the rosey path we often envision.
The roads were dusty and sometimes dangerous, and the people, hurting with physical and spiritual pain, made Jesus’ heart ache with compassion. Yet even in the face of all this, He was filled with joy. For He was listening closely to and doing the work of His Heavenly Father.
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What if that was us? What if we humans were so close to the Lord—one with Him, as Jesus had prayed—that we too were filled with the Father’s joy? Even when what we were facing was so heart wrenching we thought we would break.
It’s in those places where we often stop short. Focusing on the pain in the immediate, we often miss what God is making right in the long haul.
What if Jesus had done that when approaching the cross? What if He, when coming to Gethsemane, knowing what was ahead, had suddenly decided, Nope, I am not going any further. I am not doing this.
Colossians 1:24 and Matthew 16:24 are two passages from the Bible that I have always known had to have deeper meaning than what meets the eye. In Colossians 1:24, nkjv, Paul writes “…I fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ, for the sake of His church,….” Jesus tells us in Matthew 16:24 that to follow Him, we must deny ourselves and take up our cross.
How is it possible to fill what is lacking in the Lord’s afflictions? What does denying self and taking up your cross look like? Both verses, intricately entwined, are pictures of what it means to really follow Jesus. And both hold abundant joy when we allow them to go deep and blossom within our hearts.
Submitting to Jesus and keeping our eyes on Him while walking through whatever is happening to and around us, is where it begins.
In the pain we are facing—illness, disease, depression, financial hardship, broken relationships, anything that makes us feel as if our lives could fall apart at any moment—could this be the very vessel through which we “fill up the afflictions of Christ? Our suffering becomes that when we compassionately pray for someone else who is going through something similar.
Likewise, by the grace of God, we can deny “self” by doing the Lord’s will instead of our own.
Like Simeon of Cyrene who helped to carry Jesus’ cross, we are doing the same when—in faith—we follow Jesus doing what HE directs our hearts to do. (See Luke 23:26.)
When the Lord changes us to see life through His lens, it’s then that we understand how God uses ALL things as blessings from Heaven. It’s then that we taste and see that the Lord is good. All the time. (See Psalm 34:8.)
Oh Lord God, please don’t let me miss the many blessings you have for me. No matter how they are wrapped. Even in the ones that are overwhelmingly hard let me see that Your hand is on and in everything. Lord Jesus, cause me to pray with Your compassion. And let me take up my cross and follow You with all my heart walking in Your footsteps wherever You lead.
In Jesus name,
Amen
Kimberly
I see the Lord using me as his instrument, my JOY is complete🙏 I love reading Wilderness of Grace❤️
Kimberly, your heart to seriously follow Jesus is clearly revealed in this post. Thank you for reminding His Body of The Way , the only way to accomplish this. We MUST take up our cross daily if we want a relationship with Him and His Church.