He goes before you

The angel at Jesus’ empty tomb is giving Mary Magdalene an instruction and a message to pass on to the disciples. The message is clear. Jesus was going to a specific place, and the disciples had a choice to make. If they followed Him, they would be sure to see Him, no question about it. This really spoke to me at the start of the new year as we began 2023, but I have been reminded of it again recently.

This message is also something that we can hold on to personally! If we follow where Jesus leads us, if we go where He goes, if our hearts are after His, then we can rest in the promise that not only does He go before us, but that we will see Him. Even more than that. We can expect to see Him!

I recently found myself in a situation that I did not see coming, but I knew that I was where God wanted me to be, and that He had gone before me. What was a surprise to me was not one to Him - thankfully! When God goes before us, we can trust that He has a plan. We can trust that He knows the bigger picture, and we can have a rightful expectancy that He will show us more of who He is through the circumstances. As the angel said in the message, “There you will see him”.

Of course, we have a role to play in this! We can choose whether we follow where He leads us or not, we can choose to follow His voice or whether we walk the other way. But God is faithful, so if our heart is to follow Him and to draw closer to Him, He will use our circumstances to reveal Himself. I was thinking over what that might mean in day-to-day reality for us to know that He has gone ahead of us and to expect that we will see Him. It might be that we see His provision, or that He helps us to see a side of His character that we might otherwise not have known. It might be that He gives us the wisdom and words to say in a conversation that we would rather avoid but know we need to have.

Whatever it may be for you, I hope this encourages you today - that if you are following His lead, you can breathe and rest in the knowledge He has gone before you. Jesus knows what He is doing in you and your life, even if it feels like the opposite, and He longs to help you see Him more and more. John 10:4 says, “When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice.” Let this give you hope today! Jesus is the Good Shepherd. It is who He is, and all we have to do is to follow where He leads.