Crystal Writes A Blog

I Will Follow Him–Will You?

I remember the first time I watched the movie Sister Act. I expected nothing but comedy, but my emotional reactions to the movie surprised me. When the shy nun who barely sang above a whisper came out of her fear to belt out her lyrics, I cried because of the victory I saw in that. There is something about seeing someone get over whatever obstacle her or she is facing that really stirs my inner cheerleader. And I think it’s the same way with God when He watches His children move through this life.

In today’s reading from Deuteronomy 11:22 through Deuteronomy 11:25, we complete another week and another portion. Since there are only four verses this time, I’m going to start with just pasting them here. Since you can click the link to read it in the Complete Jewish Bible, I’m going to paste it here from The Message Bible at the Bible Gateway site…

That’s right. If you diligently keep all this commandment that I command you to obey—love God, your God, do what he tells you, stick close to him—God on his part will drive out all these nations that stand in your way. Yes, he’ll drive out nations much bigger and stronger than you. Every square inch on which you place your foot will be yours. Your borders will stretch from the wilderness to the mountains of Lebanon, from the Euphrates River to the Mediterranean Sea. No one will be able to stand in your way. Everywhere you go, God-sent fear and trembling will precede you, just as he promised.

Of course, the actual details of these promises were from God to Israel, like the promise that every place they walked would be theirs, but those of us who follow God today can claim similar promises. We know that if we faithfully follow God as our Lord, and if we trust Him to lead us, we will not end up in places not meant for us. Even if we see obstacles that seem bigger and greater than we can handle, if we follow Him, He will lead us up and over those obstacles.

I believe, with all my heart, that God watches us with a desire to see us succeed in this life. His idea of success and our idea of success are not exactly the same at times, but He never wants us to come to failure. He is our loving parent, and He only wants the best for us. In Luke 11:5-13, Yeshua talks about our requests to God being like that of a friend to a friend or a son to a father. He points out that fathers would not give their sons snakes when they ask for fish, or scorpions when they ask for eggs. God won’t give us failure when we ask for success either. As a matter of fact, I think that when God sees us build our strength, push through the hard parts, and pull ourselves over obstacles, He rejoices with us in our victories.

We can find a thesaurus full of synonyms for what Israel might have felt before they crossed over the Jordan river, and I’m fairly certain that most of us have felt the same when asked to follow and trust anyone–including God–in faith. We all have our share of trepidation, apprehension, consternation, fear, dread, and maybe even some collywobbles. But God would have us replace those feelings with some other synonyms like confidence, conviction, optimism, hope, trust and faith. As long as it is God and His perfect will that leads us, we can follow Him wherever He will go, and we can own every step we take in faith. He will never leave or forsake us, so we can follow Him even to the end of the world. I will follow Him–Will you?

August 8, 2014 Posted by Crystal A Murray (aka CrystalWriter) | Bible Study, Nonfiction, Torah Commentary | Bible Commentary, Bible study, Complete Jewish Bible, Deuteronomy, Scripture, Torah commentary, Torah Portions | Leave a comment