"My eager desire and hope being that I may never feel ashamed, but that now as ever I may do honour to Christ in my own person by fearless courage." Philippians 1:20 (Moffat)
"Still I will follow" is the heart and determination Paul has as it was his will to continue in his faith as a follower of Christ....a faith that says that nothing shall keep him from doing what God wants and a beautiful example to me as I pray that the Lord would continue to lead me through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit as I too determine in my heart to say, "Still.... I will follow" Him along the path God has planned and set in place before the foundation of the world...He fashioned my days when yet there were none the Bible tells me. And although "we cannot Lord thy purpose see.....all is well, that's done by Thee.
"Still I will follow"as I reflect back this month, one year of Randy's anniversary going Home to Heaven and as I continue to pray for my life to be used by the Lord in my service to Him as I walk forward in fearless courage now more than ever to honor Christ.
I thank God for the opportunities He has given me to proclaim His glory and share the Lord. I know that I must remain in His perfect will and live in perfect peace with my Savior and more and more master the secret of my spiritual life with Christ, to see my life as He sees it, one that is hidden in Him and paid for by His blood at the Cross..to take the higher ground and let Him have ALL of what He has paid for, my all, my life, my being.
The Bible tells us that is it better - if it is the will of God - to suffer for doing good than for doing evil. A will that is yielded to Him, a life that is hung to the nails of the Cross, with an attitude that is never ashamed. A surrender of my will that overshadows my concerns for myself...but instead lives for Him and for the concern of others in their relationship with Christ. God is so good as He shows us our next steps in His perfect timing as we keep our eyes on the One who sees the road before us and how it is my only
responsibility then to just follow in His steps, one step at a time.
He always brings us to a place where we must decide to live 'all' for Him...a place where we must not debate, reason or seek solutions but surrender more of our will to Him and until we do this
our peace is lost because our eyes are trying with much striving often to see things
from this earthly perspective that is never very clear until we look at our circumstance with God's perspective...and until we do so much is dark to our own understanding. Seeing things through God's lens, according to heavens perspective, is a faith that believes that God will work all things out for a pattern of good (Romans 8:28) and it is for His good. His good for us unfolds as we accept all He allows as we "keep our minds on the things above" trusting Him with every detail of our life. All He allows is good because God will use it to bring us nearer to Him, weaning us from the world and preparing us for Heaven.
I need the abiding presence of the Lord in my life more each day...since the time I first believed...and more and more as each day unfolds. To turn to Him to hear His voice...to need my spirit to be restrained by His Word and to surrender to His will. To allow Him to prove His faithfulness to me because He is a good good Father. To always pursue Him relentlessly even when things don't always look like they are working out for my good...for "my kingdom"...but to exchange my good for His good in my life....and why?....for the advancement of His kingdom. Always to allow Him to do that hard work in our hard places....saying..."Still I will follow".
"Still I will follow"....I think of Job...one who suffered much more than most of us and he wrote in Job 23:10-12.... "He knows the way that I take; When He has tested me I will come forth as gold. My feet have closely followed His steps...I have kept His way and have not turned aside from Him...I have not departed from the commands of His lips...I have treasured the words of His mouth more than my daily bread". Job's words echoed here echo the same of Paul's heart...and my hearts response as I journey into this next year, as God's next steps for my life unfold.
"My feet have closely followed His steps" is a place each day I desire to walk in and the footsteps I desire to follow as He is the One who prepares our way. I think of Joseph as he was sold as a slave by the Ishmaelites...yet he still followed the Lord and took his God with him into captivity...as Daniel did the same when taken to Babylon. Both remained true til the end, not giving up their faith because they had been taken from their home and placed in a foreign land. Moses still followed...after turning his back on the palaces and riches of Egypt..where his people were despised...and where he found himself tending the flock of his father in law...and eventually leading God's people even when situations were out of his control and the future very unknown as his eyes could see...but each of these men taught us what faith looks like and that faith sees only the Lord, Him who is invisible....a faith that says "I am His". All of the faithful saints and their stories we read of throughout the scriptures were marked by one thing....all still followed....all stood firm and God stood by them all.
"We cannot Lord Thy purpose see, but all is well, that's done by Thee!" How often we cannot see what God is doing but how we learn that He "does see" far beyond us......and as we live for Christ we can be certain that He will live for us. As we follow the Lord, our story He uses in the lives of others...and unlike the worlds attainments and the glory of man that fades as grass that withers away......what we pass on by faith to just one other soul is never ending.
God has been so very faithful is accomplishing all that He has purposed in our lives together as a husband and wife and as we sought His will we could not always see in the moment in what He was doing...but we knew we could hold to a faith that determined to say 'all is well, that is done by Thee'. And as we walked forward we always looked back to remember the faithfulness of our God...and in doing so we were strengthened in our faith and we were able to follow the Lord each new day saying,"that now as ever we may do honour to Christ in our own person by fearless courage." The most amazing things God does in a heart committed to Him because His ways are so much higher than our own and we cannot ever begin to comprehend the blessings He desires to bestow upon His people if we are only leaning on our own understanding.
This is our story and for me to go forward I must always remember His faithfulness, His calling and His wondrous work! How He has worked in the lives of so many...to witness His doings and how He desires to do so much in all of our lives each day...as we yield to Him. How blessed I am even this day as I write this, hearing so many testifying continually of His goodness in their lives. And as I continue to follow Christ into this next year I do so in reflecting upon His faithfulness in my life and in my husband's and in ministry and in order to walk forward believing in His Sovereignty I keep mu eyes on Him who is invisible and feed on His faithfulness.. Following Christ means doing so despite what we see or what our feelings tell us but instead to always see "Him who is invisible" Hebrews 11:27....because we walk by faith not sight and it is a faith that believes "His eyes" can see further than our own....and through all our uncertainties in life it says, "Still I will follow"
I can look back at the faithfulness of God over 20 years and I can see God's hand at work from the very beginning at CCR, and in our lives.... and today in the lives of those who He is using.....and in my life today. It has always been a part of God's plan for us to know Him and then to make Him known. This work He began as He chose to come down and birth a ministry, a church....and a new work He began in Randy while he was 'tending his flock' in his home...caring for the daily routines of life with a heart surrendered to God. A wilderness time in our lives brought us out into a new city as we still followed God... to a new home, and eventually walking into a newly established church with a handful of new friends as we walked by faith not sight. The Lord took a hold of his heart...both our hearts through his service he began to fully follow his calling in this ministry to set things in order in a church were God was guiding and providing as He heard the cries of many. ... "we cannot Lord Thy purpose see, but all is well, that's done by Thee"!
Along with unknowns there was much prayer and many spiritual battles as we consecrate our lives to Christ and simply choose to let God have all of us, all of what He has paid for...but through adversity God doesn't change...and as we cling to Him His path becomes clearer. Prayer, the Word and surrendering to Christ is what is always needed in the many adversities that come in life and ministry... confident in God's will and in the moving of the Holy Spirit Randy's heart and service to Christ echoed the heart of Paul as he was determined, through each day to the very end of his life that "his eager desire and hope being that he may never feel ashamed, but that now as ever he may do honour to Christ in his own person by fearless courage" … and..."Still he would follow".
As I prayed and sought the Lord this month....I prayed for the Lord to lead me 'where my trust is without borders'...and regardless of the difficulties and many unknowns the past 18 months have had through this time of many testings, still I will follow Him. God had spoken to my heart and reminded me of His faithfulness, our story, which is God's glorious story, and to move forward with great conviction, confidence and courage...still to follow the Lord at all costs because His ways are higher than my own.
Dwight L. Moody said, "Let us think that where one man reads the Bible, a hundred read you and me. That is what Paul meant when he said we were to be living epistles of Christ, known and read of all men. I would not give much for all that can be done by sermons, if we do not preach Christ by our lives."
"Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails...I will not believe" John 20:15. The world tests our faith by the print of the nails. "Willingness to suffer is the ultimate test of sincerity. It is the man who bears in his body the print of the nails who commands allegiance and heroic service....the message of the lips is judged by the marks of the hands."
"The message of the lips is judged by the marks of the hands" is so beautifully portrayed in this true story told by a missionary in India of a man's conversion to Christ through this missionary:
The angry chief asked this man, the head of his family, to renounce his faith or his wife and children would face execution. Moved by the spirit, the man instantly began singing these few lines, "I have decided to follow Jesus, no turning back, no turning back." Many of you know the song which was later put to music but he composed these words before his execution. His wife and children were killed. The angry chief asked again...and the man sang again, and the man was killed. The chief asked himself how a man and his family could die for a Man (Jesus) who lived in a far away land 2000 years ago. How could someone trust a Man who lived 2000 years ago. "This", he said, "must be supernatural power behind this family and this too is what I want". He too decided to follow Jesus and the whole village then too accepted Christ!
"Still..I will Follow"...although many of us will never suffer like Job, like Paul or like this man and his
family who died for their faith...all have suffered to some degree and many have suffered
greatly. I cannot possibly understand the suffering that many of you have endured but I do know the One who does and who has been my greatest teacher as I have continued to follow in His steps. And He loves scars not stars. And He uses it all and He pieces back our lives to form something beautiful, to bring Him glory and to use our stories and let the gospel shine as we come to the Cross of the Savior's love.
The nail-marks of many lives who have gone Home before us that speak of the words... 'still I will follow'... has been the 'seed of the Church' as it testifies of lives who lived for something more than themselves and their lives will never be forgotten. They leave behind a monument of faith that the storms of time and life will never destroy as their testimonies will be read in the hearts they left behind, and in generations to come. "My eager desire and hope being that I may never feel ashamed, but that now as ever I may do honour to Christ in my own person by fearless courage." …….. "still I followed."
Let us live for Christ, going forward with eager desire and hope that we may never feel ashamed, but now more than ever, honor Christ in fearless courage...
and......"STILL I will follow" Jesus this day and still I look forward to all God will do in my life which belongs to Him.
Michelle A. Guerra
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