Footsteps of Jesus

Here is the link to last week’s “Footsteps of Jesus”.

“…knowing that He who raised up the Lord Jesus will also raise us up with Jesus, …”

2 Corinthians 4:14

Often, believers use phrases or words that seem sweetly poetic and comforting. Our title is one example. What true believer wouldn’t want to follow Jesus wherever He chose to lead?

Unfortunately, many believers who love God aren’t ambitious about total commitment. Maybe life’s distractions have robbed them of knowing the joy of sharing the Gospel.

But there are brothers and sisters worldwide, men, women, girls, and boys, courageous enough to give everything. They dedicate their lives wholly to God, not because they are trying to earn salvation or anything else. They understand that following those footsteps with sincerity comes with risks of suffering, family separation, death and poverty. Some even consider wealth a burden.

Do you get why I didn’t emphasize death by placing it at the very end of the list? Do you understand why I included wealth? The answers are in the passages below. But in case you miss it, I will tell you at the end.

Though sometimes He leads through waters deep,
trials fall across the way;
though sometimes the path seems rough and steep,
see His footprints all the way. ¹

Our devotion today is found in 2 Corinthians 4. I hope you will read the entire chapter, but here are the thoughts from Paul, the apostle who gave his life following those footsteps.

Paul tells it best…

“But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us.  

We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; 

we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; 

struck down but not destroyed—  

always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, 

that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.  

2 Corinthians 4:7-10 (NKJV)

Here is the answer to the two questions I asked you before.

Therefore, we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.

2 Corinthians 2:16-18

Do you see the answers?

Our bodies start to decay at birth, but Jesus keeps our souls in His grasp forever after we are reborn. For believers, death is only temporary.

And what about wealth? How could prosperity be a burden?

Wealth is temporary, hard to find and keep, demanding attention, and can separate us from loving God enough to let it go if asked.

New King James Version (NKJV)

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

1. He Keeps Me Singing
   Luther Bridgers
   CA 1910 ↩︎