“Follow me” This is what Jesus tells Peter in John 21.19 He has just asked Peter three times if Peter loved him. In the original Greek that this passage was written, the word Jesus uses for love when he speaks to Peter is Agape. Agape is an all encompassing kind of love, the God kind of love. When Peter responds to Jesus and says he loves Him, the Greek word Peter used for love was the word Phileo. This word indicates a kind of friendship love, the kind of love that has great affinity. It is not the same kind of love as Agape. Only God can love agape. But God does not turn away our Phileo. God takes us where we are and leads us into the depths of His Agape. He says to us, like He did to Peter, to follow Him. Where He leads us will challenge us but we need to know that even these challenges are saturated with His agape love.
It strikes me that this thinking is reflected in the following quote by Chinese Christian Watchman Nee in his book, The Normal Christian Life:
“My giving of myself to the Lord must be an initial fundament act. Then, day by day, I must go on giving to Him, not finding fault with His use of me, but accepting with praise even what the flesh finds hard. That way lies true enrichment. I am Lord’s, and now no longer reckon myself to be my own but acknowledge in everything His ownership and authority. That is the attitude God delights in, and to maintain it is true consecration. I do not consecrate myself to be a missionary or a preacher; I consecrate myself to God to do His will where I am, be it in school, office or kitchen or wherever He may, in His wisdom, send me. Whatever He ordains for me is sure to be the very best, for nothing but good can come to those who are wholly His.”
May we give ourselves to God everyday and follow where our Lord leads!
