Lakeside Community Presbyterian Church

^“14 As He walked along, He saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax collector’s booth. 

‘Follow Me,’ Jesus told him,

and Levi got up and followed Him.”

Mark 2:14

Following Jesus seems so easy.

We read the calling of the disciples and they readily leave their businesses, their families, their careers without doubting or wavering that following Jesus is the correct thing to do. We also read that some people heard Jesus’ message and couldn’t follow Him (I think of the rich young ruler found in Matthew 19, Mark 10 and Luke 18) because it meant giving up too much. But it is always good to follow Jesus.

Levi heard the call of Jesus and left everything to follow. He couldn’t have known what was in store. He couldn’t have calculated all of the costs involved (don’t forget, Levi was a tax collector so he knew about calculations and counting the costs) but he trusted Jesus, so he followed.

When we trust Jesus, we follow. We won’t always know what is in store, we may not be able to figure out “Plan A” verse “Plan B”, but following Jesus is always a good next step. In fact, it is the BEST next step. When we follow Jesus, we trust. We trust that He knows best and that He will be with us through all the challenges and risks and failures. The best thing about trusting Jesus is that He will always be with us. The Spirit Is with us, living within us, empowering us and strengthening us for the journey.

So I hope that you follow Jesus with your next step. It is always the best next step to take.

Have a great rest of the week and I hope to see you on Sunday.

          The National Day of Prayer is on Thursday, May 5 and there are plenty of things to pray about for our nation and for the world. There are also a number of situations that people connected to our church are going through, situations that are really, really hard. When I consider the list of things to pray for that runs through my mind, I get a bit overwhelmed. It is hard to process it all.

          But Jesus calls us to pray. In the midst of the trouble that we face, we are to pray. We ask God for healing. We ask God for wisdom. We ask God for peace. In the midst of the desperate circumstances, we cry out. We need Christ.

          Our faith gives us an opportunity, even in the midst of the worst of times, to remember that in Christ, we can have victory. Jesus said in John 16:33 that “in this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

          The story of Easter is that Jesus has conquered it all! What seemed like the worst of all situations was overcome by Jesus. That is what motivates us to pray. In the midst of all of the bad news, the good news of the gospel propels us to pray.