Follow Hard – Stick Like Glue.

FOLLOW HARD – STICK LIKE GLUE.

Psalm 63:8 [KJV] “My soul followeth hard after Thee: Thy right hand upholdeth me.”

“Hard” in KJV English is not like we would use it today. Following hard is not about difficulty or struggle. It’s about closeness. It’s like a child would cling to his mother, or a person would “stick like glue” to their best friend.

That’s my heart’s desire. To walk in Jesus steps… following hard after Him… really close. I will not be satisfied to be “walking in the steps of Jesus”, if those foot prints were old and cold. If I’m walking in His steps, how many steps behind Him am I? Am I so far back that I can’t see HIM… only His footprints? Or am I right there WITH him… sticking like glue?

I could travel and see mountains and oceans and great wonders of nature, and I would be seeing His tracks from a long, long time ago. Awesome, inspiring, humbling, amazing. It might draw me closer to God, but I could see all that, and still not be following hard after Him.

I could read the Old Testament accounts of great things God did back then, and how He created everything. I could understand the law, and the blessings and curses, and the heart of David, and the wisdom of Solomon, and the warnings of the prophets, and again, be inspired, and get closer to God. That’s good. But that doesn’t mean I’m following hard after Him.

The trail gets a lot warmer when we read the Gospels, and see Jesus, the express image of the Father. It gets so much more personal as we see how he lived, walked, and taught among men like us. Then we are shown God’s great love for us, demonstrated in the cross, and the sacrifice of the Lamb of God. We’re now feeling the drawing of His love like never before. But for most people, it’s wonderful, but still something that happened 2000 years ago, and they’re still not following hard after Him.

Then we continue on as Paul and others open up the revelation of what Jesus did for us, and what God wants to do in us and through us, and the power and the victory that has been given to us. They reveal to us how God opened up the throne of grace, the holy of holies, by the blood of Jesus Christ, so we can enter in to His very presence and have close, personal fellowship with our Father. Yes, God loves us THAT much, that HE wants that fellowship with US! And still, we can fail to receive that truth, not accept His love, and not follow hard after Him.

We can even see God at work, now, in this time, doing miracles right before our eyes, in our own lives, and feel the touch of God’s hand. But sadly, most Christians who see and feel all this, still line up behind someone else that they think is closer to the Lord, and supposedly more “worthy” than themselves, and settle for a second-hand relationship with their Heavenly Father. If we let anyone or anything come between us and God, we are not following hard enough after Him. He LOVES us, and wants us to “stick like glue” to HIM!

All these things that help draw us closer to Him, we need. Seeing His handiwork in His creation, studying His Word, receiving His Word from His servants, obeying His voice, assembling together with our brethren in Christ, personal time in prayer and worship… we can’t leave any of those things out. But this is about so much more than doing things to please Him. He SO desires to get REALLY personal with each and every one of us. That we may KNOW Him. One on one. In Him. In LOVE. Let’s not let ANYTHING spoil that!