No Turning Back

At the end of the church service at the time I am writing this, we sang ” I Have Decided to Follow Jesus”, and it reminded me of something vital to our faith.  It reminded me that following Jesus is hard, and we may walk alone.  Some Christians don’t realize that following Jesus will be hard, and that we will very likely be persecuted for what we are doing.

The song says “No turning back, no turning back”.  When we say this we are saying that we realize that what we will be persecuted, but we still will not turn back.

In one of Alex and Brett Harris’s books, a rebelutionary states,”I guess I didn’t realize doing hard things would be hard”.  It is kind of an ironic statement, but it is the truth of what many Christians think, without even realizing it.  We must realize that, in order to reach people for Christ, we will go trough hard times, and it will test our faith.  Even so, we must stick to our promise that we sang; ” No turning back, no turning back”.

Jim Elliot once said, “If we are the sheep of His pasture, remember that sheep are headed for the altar.”  We cannot expect our lives to be all sunshine and rainbows.  There will be days when we are deep in  a valley in the pouring rain, with no end to it in sight.  But we must not turn back.  We are not, however, expected to get through these inevitable trials by our own strength, pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps when we fall down.  We are too weak for that.  Thank God, though, that He doesn’t make us go through the valleys and trials alone.  He is there with us.  He, in His infinite majesty and power humbled Himself to come down and guide us through the mire and the mud.

“Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” – Psalm 119: 105

So, because He came down to be with us and to guide us, we can have confidence when we say,” No turning back” because we know there is One here with us who will help us keep moving forward.