Where He Leads

I can hear my Sav­ior call­ing,

Take thy cross and fol­low, fol­low Me…

Where He leads me I will fol­low;

I’ll go with Him, with Him, all the way…

I’ll go with Him through the waters,

I’ll go with Him, with Him all the way…

I’ll go with Him through the gar­den,

I’ll go with Him, with Him all the way…

I’ll go with Him to dark Calvary,

I’ll go with Him, with Him all the way…

I’ll go with Him through the judg­ment,

I’ll go with Him, with Him all the way.

The above is an excerpt from the lyrics of the hymn Where He Leads Me. written by Salvation Army officer, Ernest W. Blandy, in 1890. Officer Blandy wrote this song after he choose to go to a New York City slum known as “Hell’s Kitchen” instead of serving at a much more comfortable church. How many of us would make that choice? I would probably want to choose the comfortable church rather than a place with hell in its name. However, comfort may not be what God is leading us to. Will we still follow Him if He takes us on a path that seems like only discomfort and hardships are before us?  I started thinking about this after meditating on the extract below in one of my devotionals.

A follower’s life is marked by obedience. In fact, Jesus defined true Christians as those who prove their love for Him by keeping His word (John 14:23). That doesn’t mean followers never make mistakes, but their goal is to remain faithful to the Lord’s plan whether doing so is easy or hard. Not only that, but they try to proclaim Him in times of blessing or calamity and will go—even when they don’t like where He leads.

This was in my In Touch Ministries devotion and I knew that God was speaking to me when my next reading was Oswald Chambers’ My Utmost for His Highest and it said this:

We have no right to judge where we should be put, or to have preconceived notions as to what God is fitting us for. God engineers everything; wherever He puts us, our one great aim is to pour out a whole-hearted devotion to Him in that particular work. “Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might.”

I would love to think that I have the right to judge where I should be put, but I don’t as a follower of Christ. If I go where I would like, then I could possibly be in rebellion against the Lord. And that is never a position to be in.  We should follow God even when it makes no sense and difficulty seems to be ahead.

They passed through the Phrygian and Galatian region, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia; and after they came to Mysia, they were trying to go into Bithynia, and the Spirit of Jesus did not permit them; and passing by Mysia, they came down to Troas. A vision appeared to Paul in the night: a man of Macedonia was standing and appealing to him, and saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.”  When he had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them… The crowd rose up together against them, and the chief magistrates tore their robes off them and proceeded to order them to be beaten with rods. When they had struck them with many blows, they threw them into prison, commanding the jailer to guard them securely; and he, having received such a command, threw them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks. Acts 16-10, 22-24

Paul and his colleagues wanted to go preach the Gospel in Asia, but the Holy Spirit didn´t permit them to do so. They tried to go to Bithynia, which would be in Turkey today, but He didn’t allow then to go there either. Then they got the Macedonian call and went there to preach the Good News, but the bad news is that they got beaten and thrown in jail after casting out an evil spirit from a slave-girl who brought much profit to her masters through fortune-telling. But the story didn’t end there. Paul and Silas were praying and singing praises to God then suddenly there was an earthquake which shook the foundations of the prison and the doors flew open and their chains fell off so they ran from their cell and were free. Oh sorry, that’s not what actually happened. That’s what I would have probably done though.  But they, however, stayed in jail although they had no shackles holding them down. This act resulted in the conversion of the jailer and his family.  

God’s ways are definitely not my ways, but they are always best, even when following Jesus may lead us to be beaten and jailed.  Therefore, it is important to count the cost when we follow Him, even though, where He leads may not be what we counted on.