Do You Dare to Follow Him Through Every Season?

Posted on Jul 05, 2022 Topic : Inspirational/Devotional, Men's Christian Living, Women's Christian Living
Posted by : Charlotte Gambill, Natalie Grant

Dare to Follow in Conflict

How much time do we waste in conversations that lead us nowhere?

We can spend hours in conflict, hours that we know will never bring a good return for the time we have invested. Conflict can be part of our everyday lives—if you are a parent, you soon learn that a childish tantrum can dominate the day unless you step in and find a way to diffuse the tension. Conflict can bring confusion, and in that confusion, we can forget to follow what is right. Instead, we start to follow being right, fighting for personal point scoring rather than the greater plan.

When Jesus was training His disciples, He taught them how to help people, but He also taught them how not to get held up by people. When He was sending His disciples out, He warned them that they must not allow any place of conflict to interrupt their calling. If people want to argue or object to your mission, He told them, don’t waste any more time defending your position. Shake the dust off your feet and move on.

I think we all need to learn at times to shake that dust off. If we allow conflict to interrupt our commitment to following Jesus, we will never make the progress that is possible. If we stop to engage in every disagreement or defend every accusation, we run the risk of being distracted from what God has called us to. When David went to the frontline to take bread and cheese to

his brothers, his eldest brother tried to cause conflict. He taunted David and sought to ridicule him. Yet we read in 1 Samuel 17 that because David was more focused on God’s glory, he found himself at the center of God’s whole purpose for having him there that day.

We must keep our perspective when we sense the pull of conflict. Whether

the adversity is from friends and family, or we feel conflict from people around us in a work setting, in church, in our neighborhood, no one is immune. When conflict brews, ask yourself, what would I rather invest my time in? What will bring the greatest glory to God?

How often do we leave Goliath standing because we get distracted fighting our brothers? How much time do we waste in futile conversations when the real call is to win the battle before us? In times of conflict, keep following the Father. Even in the face of betrayal, Jesus kept following all the way to the cross, where the ultimate victory was won.

Dare to Follow in Loss

In church, we sing a song with the lyrics, “You are good / You’re never gonna let me down.” Singing that song can feel hard when we’re facing a tough loss. In times of grief or disappointment, has Jesus let us down?

We know He is good, but we didn’t expect things to play out this way. The easy thing to do would be to sit down and not sing out. But following Jesus in every season means declaring what’s true in the midst of what looks like the opposite. In John 11, we read about a man named Lazarus. Lazarus was sick, but when his sisters sent word to Jesus about the illness, He didn’t immediately go to his side. Instead, He waited two days. By the time Jesus arrived, Lazarus was dead and buried. At separate times, both of his sisters protested to Jesus that if only He had been there, their brother wouldn’t have died. They knew Him to be the healer—why hadn’t He healed Lazarus? We know the end of the story—how Jesus resurrects Lazarus from the dead and calls him out of the grave—but what’s equally incredible about this story is what Jesus says to His disciples beforehand.

Lazarus has died, He tells them. But He’s glad that He wasn’t there to heal him because, as The Message translation puts it, “You’re about to be given new grounds for believing.” Everyone believed Jesus to be the One who heals, but it was important for them to also believe Him to be the One who resurrects.

As we continue to follow Jesus in every season, we can be confident that loss never points to His abandonment. It is always an opportunity to go deeper and learn new dimensions of who He is. You might know Him to be your provider, but He wants you to know Him as your protector and defender too. You might know Him to be your best friend, but He also wants you to know Him as your Father.

There is always more to who He is. Experiencing loss often feels devastating, but it also makes room for more of Him in your life. In spite of how empty you feel as you walk through seasons of life, there is nothing like being filled up with more of Him and His love, peace, joy, and comfort. No matter how much we lose, Jesus will never let us down.