Follow Your Path

Acts 21:13-14

But he said, “Why all this weeping? You are breaking my heart! I am ready not only to be jailed at Jerusalem but even to die for the sake of the Lord Jesus.” When it was clear that we couldn’t persuade him, we gave up and said, “The Lord’s will be done.”

You would think that Paul would listen. Over and over again, well meaning people had told Paul he shouldn’t go to Jerusalem.

Paul didn’t listen.

Finally, the people who loved Paul gave up and said, “The Lord’s will be done.” In their words, “Well, Paul you are stubborn dude, go ahead and go and see what happens!”

Was Paul frightened of what lay ahead in Jerusalem? Probably. A beating doesn’t sound like the way I want to spend a Saturday afternoon. Yet he was determined to follow God’s path for him.

On April 14, 1521 Martin Luther was on his way to the Diet of Worms. The emperor had forbidden the sale of all the reformer's books and ordered them to be seized. Luther's life was in great danger. Luther's devoted friend and confidant, George Spalatin, had sent word through a special messenger not to come to Worms lest he suffer the same fate as John Hus. Luther comforted his fearful friends, saying, "Though Hus was burned, the truth was not burned, and Christ still lives." Then he sent Spalatin the now famous message, "I shall go to Worms, though there were as many devils as tiles on the roofs."

What Paul and Martin Luther understood is that sometimes your friends and loved ones don’t understand what God has put in your heart. God may set you on a path that others may not think is good. And it isn’t good for them, God didn’t call them to it. They must follow their own calling.

Bill Wilson, Pastor of Metro Assembly in Brooklyn, New York once said, “No one understands the call of God on a man’s life but the man God calls.”

What is God calling you to do? It may not be dangerous or foolhardy, or it may be both. Whatever it is, you must go forward. Don’t be deterred by others. Follow God’s path that leads to obedience and fulfillment.

Today’s Readings: Leviticus 23,24; Psalm 24; Acts 21

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