Paul told the Corinthians "And you should imitate me, just as I imitate Christ." Other translations of this verse say, "Follow me as I follow Christ." Ok. Again, simple right? Find a godly leader and follow him or her.
I'm pretty sure I've got the following part down pretty well. I see someone who is further along in their relationship with God than I am, and I start to follow them. I do my absolute best to imitate them. Half the time, I don't even have to try. I just end up doing the things I see them do all the time.
The part I still have to get down is the "just as I imitate Christ" part. Not that I follow them in things contrary to what Christ would do. They really are good, godly leaders. What gets me is imitating them in things that don't really matter - like the desserts I grab on my way out of a dining hall or what I think of characters in movies or even the annoying songs that I now like for some unexplainable reason. Or I depend on them to lead me. When I'm around them, I tend to forget (or to be more accurate, don't act on) the fact that there are people following me too that I should actually lead.
Within the last few weeks, God has issued me a challenge. To let Him lead me. To lean on Him. Because in Ephesians, we are commanded, "Imitate God... in everything you do."
When God puts someone in our lives who is a godly leader, it's not so we can try to make an exact copy of their life in our own. It's so we have an example of how to imitate Him. He is the one who's life we want to copy in our own. That's why Paul didn't stop at "you should imitate me." Paul made sure that he added "just as I imitate Christ."
As we imitate God more, we begin to depend on Him more. Our identity becomes more dependent on who He is. That leads us to depend on Him more, which in turn causes us to follow Him more closely.
God made each of us unique. He gave us different passions, different talents, different likes and dislikes, different personalities. We each have a different aspect of who God is built into us. That is why we can all imitate Him and still be the individual that He created us to be. That is why we can find godly leaders and follow them as they follow Christ while we are still being a leader that someone else can follow as we follow Christ.
I'm pretty sure I've got the following part down pretty well. I see someone who is further along in their relationship with God than I am, and I start to follow them. I do my absolute best to imitate them. Half the time, I don't even have to try. I just end up doing the things I see them do all the time.
The part I still have to get down is the "just as I imitate Christ" part. Not that I follow them in things contrary to what Christ would do. They really are good, godly leaders. What gets me is imitating them in things that don't really matter - like the desserts I grab on my way out of a dining hall or what I think of characters in movies or even the annoying songs that I now like for some unexplainable reason. Or I depend on them to lead me. When I'm around them, I tend to forget (or to be more accurate, don't act on) the fact that there are people following me too that I should actually lead.
Within the last few weeks, God has issued me a challenge. To let Him lead me. To lean on Him. Because in Ephesians, we are commanded, "Imitate God... in everything you do."
When God puts someone in our lives who is a godly leader, it's not so we can try to make an exact copy of their life in our own. It's so we have an example of how to imitate Him. He is the one who's life we want to copy in our own. That's why Paul didn't stop at "you should imitate me." Paul made sure that he added "just as I imitate Christ."
As we imitate God more, we begin to depend on Him more. Our identity becomes more dependent on who He is. That leads us to depend on Him more, which in turn causes us to follow Him more closely.
God made each of us unique. He gave us different passions, different talents, different likes and dislikes, different personalities. We each have a different aspect of who God is built into us. That is why we can all imitate Him and still be the individual that He created us to be. That is why we can find godly leaders and follow them as they follow Christ while we are still being a leader that someone else can follow as we follow Christ.
