"My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me." John 10:27c

Jesus makes a humanly wild statement: "they follow Me." Doesn't it feel that following Jesus is difficult and at times a real struggle? It seems as if much, if not most, of the time we're fighting to be good followers of Jesus! Why does He say so matter of fact "they follow Me"? If you stop and think about how many times we've fallen on our faces, really blow it in sin, it sure seems like we aren't really good followers. In fact, sometimes it's hard to tell whose side we're really on. But God in His grace convicts us (sometimes painfully) and we repent. Excitedly we reengage with Him, enjoying His amazing grace, learning from His loving discipline.

And then…we do it again! We give into the flesh only to find ourselves doing another face plant into the pavement of sin. You'd think we'd be quick learners with so many spiritual bloody noses. I'm convinced our patient, perfect Father uses our stupidity and sin to show us how weak and helpless we are on our own and how strong and sufficient He is when we simply trust Him with our lives day by day. In Philippians 1:6 Paul said, "I am confident of this very thing that He who began a good work in you will perfect (complete) it until the day of Christ Jesus."

Is that good news, is that HOPE or what!?! When I consider the characters of the Bible I sometimes feel a little better about my own weaknesses…clearly David had issues (Bathsheba) and yet God said David was a man after His own heart. It seemed Peter's favorite food was feet, his own, and yet God used him to preach the first sermon after Jesus' ascension where 3,000 were saved as God used him to lead the apostles in the birth of the church. The King of kings loves us so much that He refuses to give up on us. Just like the men and women of old God's ultimate end here on earth is to use the pain and difficulty of life to make us like Jesus (Romans 8:28-29; Galatians 4:19). He gets great glory when we look more and more like Jesus.

Just like our kids, little by little we realize that His correction & discipline is for our good and truly demonstrates His love for us. The more we realize this the more we want to follow Him and want to stray less; we seek Him more and trust our own hearts less; we desire to please Him more and think less and less of ourselves (Romans 12:1-3). Just like growing physically, growing spiritually is not easy and not without serious growing pains. But the end is a closer relationship with the God who made us and His Son who died to save us. We will follow, not because we've got our act together but rather because He loves us too much to leave us like we are. "Faithful is He who calls you, and He also will bring it to pass". 1Thessalonians 5:24. It's not our faithfulness in following but His faithfulness in loving us, His children.

"Father please make us more like Jesus! Make us faithful followers of You all the days of our lives. Thank You for using even my stupidity and sin to show me how much I need You day by day. Please show me the areas I still insist on doing things my way and lead me to repent and follow You again. Thank you for Your patient love as You discipline me for my good and Your glory. Oh God, my King, rule in me today! Please cause the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing to You, oh Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer."