Following The Footprints of Jesus

   We often sing songs about following the Master. Who has not sung “Where He Leads Me I Will Follow” or “Footprints of Jesus”? Sometimes I imagine how wonderful it would have been to follow Him up the mountain and listen to that sermon delivered there. Or think of how thrilling it would have been to have followed Him to the shores of Galilee and heard that sermon He preached from the boat. Let’s take a moment to follow His footprints when He worshiped.

His “worship footprints” began early in His life. The details of His trip to Jerusalem at age 12 are well known. He had traveled from Nazareth some 70 miles and arrived at the holy city. It is important to note that Jesus did not go to worship because His parents made Him go. This is emphasized by the fact of where He was when His parents found Him. He had been lost for three days, yet He was still in the temple! He could have been anywhere in the city, but His response to His parents indicated that the temple was the first place where they should have looked for Him. He was at the place where God was worshiped and His desire to be there was because it was where He found the things of His Father!

There is another incident in the life of Jesus which shows His attitude toward worship. Read Mark chapter one, where the word “immediately” is found eight times. The most significant is in verse 21 where Mark records, “They went into Capernaum, and immediately on the Sabbath He entered the synagogue and taught.” His first action in entering the city was to worship!

Shortly after His baptism and temptation in the wilderness Jesus returned to His home town. “So He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. And as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read” (Luke 4:16). Don’t overlook that key phrase “as He custom was”!

His “worship footprints,” which began early in His life, were there to the very end. In Gethsemane, He said, “I was daily with you in the temple teaching, and you did not seize Me” (Mark 14:49). Day after day, He was there in that house of worship!

What about you and your footprints? He longed to be in the house of God, even spending three days there at one time. His first action in a new city was to worship! Worshiping God was His custom. He loved to worship God, even every day. You might check your footprints!   ~Dan Jenkins