You Follow Me....

Then Peter, turning around, saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following, who also had leaned on His breast at the supper, and said, "Lord, who is the one who betrays You?" Peter, seeing him, said to Jesus, "But Lord, what about this man?" Jesus said to him, "If I will that he remain till I come, what is that to you? You follow Me."—John 21:20-22

This small section of Scripture oddly enough brings me back to my grammar school days when the teacher would reprimand us by saying, “Eyes front!”  Jesus’ words, “You follow Me." are like those of my grade school teachers, in that, they remind me to place my focus in the right place.  

It is so easy for me to get side-tracked by people and focused on what they are doing or saying or accomplishing rather than what should have my attention. My flesh doesn’t want to miss anything...it doesn’t want to be left behind...it wants to be in the know and it wants to be included!   My attention, therefore, gets diverted and as a result my heart gets divided.  A divided heart is not a good thing.  It feeds double-mindedness and causes us to waste precious time and energy on things that do not matter.  I don’t know about you, but for me focusing on others and paying close attention to what they are doing or saying can be exhausting.  Life on earth is difficult enough without taking on additional concerns or worries that are not yours to take.  

Truly, Jesus’ admonishment here to Peter is a gift to my heart.  My Jesus WANTS all my attention. Jesus doesn’t want me to concern myself with what everybody else is saying or doing.  I can focus instead, on Him, the One who rules and overrules all for my good and His glory.  I can trust Him to bring me forward or back.  I can trust that He has my best interest at heart.  No good thing will He withhold from me as walk in obedience before Him.  He is good and will do good.  My God is my sun and my shield, my strength and my song...my portion forever.  

Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Therefore let us, as many as are mature, have this mind; and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal even this to you. Nevertheless, to the degree that we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us be of the same mind.—Philippians 3:12-16