When Following Jesus Costs You Security

Good morning, and welcome to Grace For Another Morning.

There was a time when much of my attention was focused on building a good life.

I wanted to work. I wanted to provide. I wanted my spouse and children to have stability. I wanted to create a future in which the people I loved would be secure.

None of those desires sounded wrong.

In fact, they sounded responsible.

But somewhere along the way, something changed.

I became so consumed with building that life that I stopped spending time with God.

The strange thing is that I was trying to provide security for the people I loved while slowly drifting away from the One who had been providing for me all along.

That is what makes Jesus’ words in Luke 9 so uncomfortable.

A man approaches Him with what appears to be complete commitment:

“Lord, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest.”

Those are impressive words.

Jesus does not congratulate him.

He does not tell him how wonderful his commitment sounds.

Instead, Jesus answers by talking about foxes, birds, and a man without a place to sleep.

“Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head.”

Jesus was making something clear before this man took another step:

Do not follow Me because you think I am promising you a comfortable life.

Even animals had predictable places of rest. Jesus did not.

Following Him could mean uncertainty.

It could mean inconvenience.

It could mean surrendering the expectation that obedience to God should always produce the kind of life we would naturally choose for ourselves.

That is difficult for us because security is one of the things we spend our lives trying to build.

We save.

We plan.

We work.

We prepare.

We try to protect our families.

There is nothing inherently wrong with any of those things.

The danger comes when the pursuit of security becomes so important that we cannot imagine following Christ anywhere that might threaten it.

We can begin saying something very different from the man in this passage.

Instead of:

“Lord, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest,”

our lives begin saying:

“Lord, I will follow You as long as I know where this is going.”

As long as the bills are covered.

As long as the career remains intact.

As long as the retirement plan stays on schedule.

As long as the family remains comfortable.

As long as obedience does not disturb the life we have worked so hard to build.

But Jesus never promised that following Him would leave every earthly security untouched.

He simply said:

Follow Me.

That does not mean Christians should become irresponsible or stop planning for their families.

It means our plans cannot become our master.

There is a difference between wisely preparing for tomorrow and trusting tomorrow more than we trust God.

I had to learn that difference.

I was trying so hard to build a good life that I allowed the pursuit of that life to crowd out the God who had given it to me.

Perhaps that is why this hard saying still matters so much.

Jesus is asking us a question beneath the words:

If following Me led somewhere less comfortable than the life you planned, would you still follow?

That is where discipleship becomes more than an idea.

Because it is easy to follow Jesus when He seems to be walking toward the future we already wanted.

Faith is revealed when He leads somewhere we did not plan to go.