{"id":464136,"date":"2025-01-04T01:58:31","date_gmt":"2025-01-03T20:28:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.com\/?p=464136"},"modified":"2025-01-04T01:58:32","modified_gmt":"2025-01-03T20:28:32","slug":"why-cant-i-follow-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/2025\/01\/04\/why-cant-i-follow-now\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Can\u2019t I Follow Now?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Peter asked, \u201cLord, why can\u2019t I follow you now?\u201d \u2014John 13:37<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are times when we can\u2019t do what we want, and we don\u2019t understand why. When this happens, wait. It is God who brings these blank spaces into our lives, and it is God who must fill them. A blank space might come before we are sanctified, to teach us what sanctification means. Or it might come after, to teach us what service means. Whatever the reason, we must not try to fill it on our own. Never run before God\u2019s guidance. If there is the slightest doubt, then he is not guiding. Whenever there is doubt, don\u2019t.
Sometimes, we have a clear picture of an outcome God wants for us\u2014the end of a certain friendship or business relationship, for example\u2014but we are not sure about how God wants to accomplish it. If it isn\u2019t clear that God wishes us to act, we must wait. If we act impulsively, on a feeling, we will end up causing difficulties that could take years to put right. Wait for God, and he will accomplish the task without any heartbreak or disappointment.
In John 13, Peter doesn\u2019t want to wait. \u201cI will lay down my life for you,\u201d he declares to Jesus (v. 37). It\u2019s an honest declaration, but an ignorant one: Peter doesn\u2019t know himself as Jesus does. \u201cJesus answered . . . \u2018Before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times!\u2019\u201d (v. 38). The feeling Peter wants to act on, his natural devotion to Jesus, is a good one. But Jesus wants him to act on something else\u2014not devotion but discipleship. He uses the blank space, the \u201cnot now,\u201d to discipline Peter and bring about the thing Peter wants in the proper way and at the proper time.
By Oswald Chambers<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Peter asked, \u201cLord, why can\u2019t I follow you now?\u201d \u2014John 13:37 There are times when we can\u2019t do what we want, and we don\u2019t understand why. When this happens, wait. It is God who brings these blank spaces into our lives, and it is God who must fill them. A blank space might come before […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[686],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-464136","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-devotion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464136","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=464136"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464136\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=464136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=464136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=464136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}