DEVOTION, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER
25, 2012
“A Right to Lead”
BY
ALISTAIR BEGG
We should follow our Lord as unhesitatingly as sheep follow
their shepherd, for He has a right to lead us wherever He pleases. We are not
our own, we are bought with a price—let us recognize the rights of the
redeeming blood. The soldier follows his captain, the servant obeys his master,
and so we must follow our Redeemer, to whom we are a purchased possession. We
are not true to our profession of being Christians if we question the summons
of our Leader and Commander.
Submission is our duty; quibbling is our folly. Our Lord may say
to us what he said to Peter, "What is that to you? You follow Me!"1 Wherever
Jesus may lead us, He goes before us. If we do not know where we go, we know
with whom we go. With such a companion, who will dread the dangers of the
journey? The road may be long, but His everlasting arms will carry us to the
end. The presence of Jesus is the assurance of eternal salvation; because He
lives, we will live also. We should follow Christ in simplicity and faith,
because the paths in which He leads us all end in glory and immortality.
It is true that they may not be smooth paths—they may be covered with sharp,
flinty trials; but they lead to "the city that has foundations, whose
designer and maker is God."2 All the paths of the Lord are
mercy and truth to those who keep His covenant.
Let us put our complete trust in our Leader, since we know that
in prosperity or adversity, sickness or health, popularity or contempt, His
purpose will be worked out, and that purpose will be pure, unmingled good to
every heir of mercy. We will find it sweet to go up the bleak side of the hill
with Christ; and when rain and snow blow into our faces, His dear love will
make us far more blessed than those who sit at home and warm their hands at the
world's fire. When Jesus draws us, we will run after Him. No matter where He
leads us, we follow the Shepherd.
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