Follow the leader

But he knows where I am going. And when he tests me, I will come out as pure as gold. For I have stayed on God’s paths; I have followed his ways and not turned aside. I have not departed from his commands,
but have treasured his words more than daily food. (Job 23:10-12 NLT)

I have followed his ways and not turned aside. Wouldn't that be the best testimony you could hear when you meet God face-to-face in eternity? To have followed so closely that your ways were consistent, your heart was totally in tune with his, and your desire to know and follow his commands were like 'daily bread' to your soul. 

What we fail to read in this passage is the way this is proven. And when he tests me...those are the words we want to skip over, aren't they? We don't like the 'testing' of our faith. We might even resist it a bit. To be honest here, it isn't news to anyone that we resist - testing is hard and we don't mind the easy path. We want to goodness of his grace, but we don't always enjoy the part of our faith needing to be put into action!

The purity of our motives is only revealed in the testing. Like it or not, we will always be subject to more than a casual review of our ways. We aren't going to always skate by with our wishy-washy, sometimes on again, sometimes off again faith. God will bring us to the testing grounds of faith because he wants us to realize there is more to this life with him than getting our 'fire insurance' against hell.

Following doesn't require knowing where one is headed - it just requires us knowing who it is we are following. We can follow our own mistaken beliefs, but the journey will be tough and riddled with issues. We can follow 'most of the time' down the road we know Jesus wants for us, but it is the 'some of the time' decisions that mess up the journey. 

The more we commit to this journey with Jesus, the more we realize it isn't about OUR agenda - it is about his. How do we discover his agenda for the journey? We get into his Word and we learn from it. We discover the treasures hidden there. We enjoy that time in his Word as much as we enjoy our daily food. We won't be able to follow until we realize who it is that is leading. It could be we need to relinquish that lead to him and allow him to be the one who determines the journey. Just sayin!