Why Cannot I Follow Thee Now?

Why Cannot I Follow Thee Now? Daily devotional by Oswald Chambers

"Peter said unto Him, Lord, why cannot I follow Thee now?" John 13:37

There are times when you cannot understand why you cannot do what you want to do. When God brings the blank space, see that you do not fil it in, but wait.

The blank space may come in order to teach you what sanctification means, or it may come after sanctification to teach you what service means.

Never run before God's guidance. If there is the slightest doubt, then He is not guiding. Whenever there is doubt - don't.

In the beginning you may see clearly what God's wil is - the severance of a friendship, the breaking off of a business relationship, something you feel distinctly before God is His wil for you to do, never do it on the impulse of that feeling.

If you do, you wil end in making difficulties that wil take years of time to put right.

Wait for God's time to bring it round and He wil do it without any heartbreak or disappointment. When it is a question of the providential wil of God, wait for God to move.

Peter did not wait on God, he forecast in his mind where the test would come, and the test came where he did not expect it. "I wil lay down my life for Thy sake." Peter's declaration was honest but ignorant. "Jesus answered him ...The cock shal not crow, til thou hast denied Me thrice." This was said with a deeper knowledge of Peter than Peter had of himself.

He could not fol ow Jesus because he did not know himself, of what he was capable. Natural devotion may be al very wel to attract us to Jesus, to make us feel His fascination, but it wil never make us disciples. Natural devotion wil always deny Jesus somewhere or other.