"Shall Follow Me"

"...He leadeth me ...." Psalm 23:2

"He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake." (Psalm 23:2,3) Twice in these two verses it is said that the Lord leads us. He is the Shepherd and we are the sheep. The role of the Shepherd is to lead and the role of the sheep is to follow. It is not our place to do the leading- we can't. He is the leader, the one we are to follow. This is the charge that Jesus gives to those who would put their trust and faith in Him as Savior and Lord. "Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me." (Matthew 16:24)

We can make the choice to either follow Jesus and let Him be the leader, or we can choose to step in front of Him and take the lead ourselves. If we do the leading, we will always wind up going in the wrong direction, we will get ourselves into trouble and we will make a mess of our lives. (We have all seen the results that come from doing the leading- we have all done it at one time or other.) But when we will step back and let Jesus do the leading, we will reap a blessing, and a promise. He promises that if we will "follow Him", then He will cause something to "follow us"-- "Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever." (verse 6)

As we are being led by Him, then His goodness and mercy follows our lives. What a wonderful promise! And not only does it follow us just today, but everyday ("all the days of my life"). When we surrender the lead of our lives to Him, there is nothing but benefits that come from it. We have Him making the decisions, rightly dividing our path before us, leading us in the right way, keeping us out from destruction, and we have His goodness and His mercy following us everywhere we go.

Have a great day. If we follow Him, then His goodness and mercy will follow us.

For further reading:
Proverbs 3:5,6
John 10:11,14, 27