LEAVE IT AND RISE UP

Luke 5:27-28 And after these things he went forth, and saw a publican, named Levi, sitting at the receipt of custom: and he said unto him, follow me. And he left all, rose up, and followed him.

The Lord told Levi to follow Him. So, Levi had a choice to follow or start giving all the excuses of why he couldn’t do it right then like, “I really want to obey you Lord, but now is not a good time for me. You know I love you Lord, but I just can’t do it right now.” That is what most people do. The Lord rarely asks you to do something when everything is just right, when you have enough time, resources, and emotional bandwidth. Faith is always required to follow the Lord. He didn’t say much to Levi. He didn’t tell him all he would be doing or all the things that would lie ahead of him. He just said, “Follow me.” Then, Levi did something that most of us have a problem doing; and that is, instead of hesitating, Levi just left everything and followed. There was no question-and-answer session so Levi could make a quality decision. I don’t know why we tend to treat the commands of the Lord as requests. Why is it we treat God like He is a human and someone we shouldn’t immediately obey? God is smarter than you and He is never going to ask you to do something that will harm you, your family, or your life, so why don’t we just trust Him and do what He tells us to do? The answer is fear of the unknown and a lack of faith. If you believe and are absolutely sure God told you to do something, you should just do it. I’m not talking about, “I think it was God,” or “I hope it was God.” You know the voice of your Good Shepherd and you can hear from Him. When the Lord speaks and tells you to do something, like He did with Levi, because you know His voice, you will be able to obey. The Lord may not ask you to follow Him, meaning leave it all, but I know the Lord has a plan for each and every one of us, so we must be willing to let go of anything and everything that would hold us back from obeying the Lord.