Come Follow Him

Hey everyone,
I am starting a blog to share the thoughts that I have as I study the standard works of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I am currently studying the New Testament and that will be the basis of my posts until I finish. I hope that the thoughts that I have will be of strength and support to you! It is amazing how the Holy Spirit works, even though something I learn may be something I have known my entire life, my testimony will always grow, it will strengthen in a way that it never has. I am so grateful for the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the teachings of Christs life. I'm grateful for the opportunity to read and learn from Christs example. I hope you can enjoy and even gain something from the simple thoughts that come to me as I study the scriptures.


This week my mind has been reflecting Matthew 4:19-20, which says, "And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. And they straightway left their nets and followed him." What does it mean to be Fishers of men? What does it mean to follow Him? How could you just drop everything in your life and devote it to the Lord? For me, I made the decision to Follow Christ when I was eight years old. I made the decision to follow his example and be baptized by one who had the authority of God, the Priesthood, my Father. It was a time in my life that I knew that was expected of me. However, I remember how excited I was. I remember having the interview with my Bishop and him asking me if I understood what I was doing. I was so excited to follow Christ. So why is it so hard then? In the Institute Manual for the New Testament Elder Joseph B. Worthlin gives great insight to the struggles we may face that make it hard to follow him. He says, "We might define a net as anything that entices or prevents us from following the call of Jesus Christ, the son of the living God. Nets in this context can be our work, our hobbies, or pleasures, and, above all else, our temptations and sins. In short, a net can be anything that pulls us away from our relationship with our Heavenly Father or from His restored Church... If the Savior were to call you today, would you be just as willing to leave your nets and follow him?" I love this quote. It is the nets in our lives that prevent us from following Christ. We face them day in and day out. It is our job to find out what those nets are and find out how to break them down.

Christ was the perfect example of everything we should emulate. As we find how to better follow Him we can then find how to better emulate the attributes that Christ has. In one of my classes we are studying about being resilient. Christ is the prime example of resilience. Especially when it comes to the adversary. I love the story of When Christ fasted forty days and was tempted by Satan. The reason why I love this is because of the lesson I have learned. If you think about it, Christ must have been very exhausted from fasting for forty days. I can barely fast 24 hours. Christ was tempted by Satan multiple times. The way Satan tempted him was by using Christs own words and twisting them. He twisted the truth, which is the same thing He did with Adam and Eve. Anyways, Christ was so resilient and didn't fall for Satan's temptations. Instead, He said, "Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve." (Matthew 4:10) As a missionary in England, at a zone conference we studied this very extensively. I remember my Mission President telling us that we are Daughters and Sons of a King, of a God. Because we are daughters and sons of a King and God we have more power than Satan ever will. We have all the power in the world to overpower and overcome Him. We need to understand our worth, and that we can overcome Satan. It may be hard but Satan must listen when we say, "Get thee Hence" because we have more power than he does he has to listen to us. We need to not allow him to get back into our minds. Most of the time our thoughts are what invite him into our lives. It's kind of scary to think about actually. But that is where Following Him and casting our nets aside come in. Be resilient. Take your nets and see how they distract you from Christ!

These are just a few of my thoughts from my study. Thanks for reading.