In the quiet, that’s where I heard Him whisper to my soul. “Let me lead you.” My heart sings when I hear that voice. I smile to myself. Oh to go where He would lead… So simple and yet so difficult.
Because that leading isn’t easy to follow. No, anything but easy.

“Anyone who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves their son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.”
Matthew 10:37-39

So difficult, and yet, in my mind’s eye, I see a God-man nailed to a tree. “Let this cup pass from me,” He had pleaded, but the cup didn’t pass. He drank deeply from it; He drank the poison of my sin. He bled and died, and yet He chose to follow that leading anyway. That still, small voice.
It didn’t end there. No, my Jesus was victorious, for on the third day, He rose from the grave. He had conquered sin and death!

Now He says, “Let me lead you.” The way will be difficult, the journey long. A path of suffering and a road of pain, and yet, there is this deep peace. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” Isaiah 55:9

No, the Christian life isn’t all suffering. There is joy and meaning, hope and more than hope… blessed assurance about what is to come. But, dear friends, this journey is not easy. It requires sacrifice.
We must die to ourselves and to our “rights.” We lose our life, and then we find it. Yes, we find it.
Let Him lead you, friend. The way will be hard, but it is so worth it. So worth the pain. So worth the sacrifice. Just to know Him.

“Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him.”
James 1:12

“The honor of Jesus Christ is at stake in your bodily life…. Do you continue to go with Jesus? The way lies through Gethsemane, through the city gate, outside the camp; the way lies alone, and the way lies until there is no trace of a footstep left, only the voice, ‘Follow me.’”
~Oswald Chambers from My Utmost for His Highest: September 19th entry

“Oh to be like You, to give all I have just to know You. Jesus, there’s no one besides You. Forever the hope in my heart. And it’s all because of You, Jesus; it’s all because of You, Jesus. It’s all because of Your love, and my soul shall live.”
Scandal of Grace by Hillsong