He said to him, “Follow Me!”
John 21:19

“Peter, the time is coming when you will grow old and someone will force you to go where you don’t want to go. But don’t concern yourself with this, Peter. You will glorify Me in your death.

“In the meantime, Follow Me.”

“But Lord, what about John?”

“What difference should that make to you? He may be around longer than you are, maybe even until I come again. Peter, keep your focus on yourself. You follow Me” (John 21:18-22 my paraphrase).

Dear Peter. Isn’t it so easy to relate to him? He didn’t think about what to say before he said it. He just blurted it out–“What about John?”

It’s fairly plain to me, Lord, what You were trying to get across to him: The important thing is that I follow You. That I not look at others to see how You’re leading them or using them. That I don’t try to analyze how You’re working in their lives or what their relationship with You might be like. Focus on myself . . . I am to follow You .

That pretty well takes care of my todays and my tomorrows, doesn’t it?

And when death comes? “This He said, signifying by what kind of death [Peter] would glorify God” (John 21:19). I don’t know what kind of a death I’m going to die, but whatever comes, I’m to glorify Him in it and through it.

You know, Lord, I doubt my ability to do either of those things: to follow You today, or to glorify You in my death when it comes sometime tomorrow.

“I don’t recall having told you that it was up to you, Anabel. Remember, you are under the New Covenant, and I have come to live within you for the express purpose of meeting life–and death–for you. I too would doubt your ability to do these things yourself, dear one. That’s the very reason the covenant takes care of this. I do not doubt My ability, so why not let Me handle it all for you?

“Follow Me, Anabel.”