Follow Jesus Down the Difficult Road

The number one idol in the church today is comfort.[1] It is difficult to follow God’s leading when comfort is an idol. Jesus said of those who would follow Him that they must deny themselves, take up their cross daily, and follow Him.[2]

Many people claim to desire God’s will but are unwilling to continue when things get hard. They will conclude that God’s will is for them to quit, leave the church to find another one that better suits their preferences, or that God has closed the door because they are facing difficulty. That is completely contrary to the biblical example. It is spiritually detrimental to the believer and is a barrier to God’s kingdom coming on earth as it is in heaven.

The path God calls us to follow Him on is difficult and often requires suffering. If we truly want to follow Jesus, we must be willing to follow Him down the paths we don’t want to continue down. His will may not be the same as our will. His will most definitely will contradict our comforts. But His will is what leads to His greatest glory, and that is our highest calling.

I want to encourage you, don’t bail when things get tough. That may be exactly where God wants you to mold you to look more like Himself and for the world to see Him more clearly through you.

Imagine all that wouldn’t have happened for God’s glory if followers of Christ weren’t willing to continue to follow Jesus down the difficult roads. Here is an excerpt from Tony Merida’s commentary on Acts that highlights some heroes from church history. (God put this blog post on my heart while studying for this week’s sermon in Acts, as we will see Paul follow God’s will straight down the difficult road.) I pray you see yourself in their story, and I pray you will follow Jesus down the difficult road, not the road of comfort.

“Missions history is filled with the accounts of missionaries who left people and possessions for dangerous places, even though friends and family urged them to choose different paths. These condensed stories of Jim Elliot, David Livingstone, William Carey, Adoniram Judson, C. T. Studd, and John G. Paton are just a few examples of what I mean:

Jim Elliot, who decided to give his life to serve the Auca Indians in Ecuador even though people told him he was “too gifted” to consider such a thing, said: “Consider the call from the throne above. ‘Go ye, and from round about, come over and help us.’ And even the call from damned souls below, ‘Send Lazarus to my brothers that they come not to this place.’ Impelled, then, by these voices, I dare not stay home while these Indians perish. So, what if the well-fed church in the homeland needs stirring? They have the Scriptures, Moses and the Prophets and a whole lot more. Their condemnation is written on their bankbooks and in the dust on their Bible covers. American believers have sold their lives to the service of mammon, and God has His rightful way of dealing with those who succumb to the spirit of Laodicea.” Elliot and four other heroes gave their lives for the Auca Indians.

David Livingstone, who went into the heart of Africa, wrote a letter to the London Missionary Society: “So powerfully convinced am I that it is the will of the Lord that I should go to Africa, I will go no matter who opposes me.” Later, after countless afflictions, he still wouldn’t return home, even though others, like Henry M. Stanley, tried to persuade him to do so. Livingstone told Stanley, “God has called me to Africa, and I am staying here.”

William Carey, “the father of modern missions,” rose up in Europe and said to a group of ministers, “I am going to go to India and make the gospel known there.” A minister in the audience rebuked him: “Sit down, young man. You are an enthusiast. When God pleases to convert the heathen in India, he will do it without consulting you or me.” But Carey wouldn’t be persuaded—and praise God he wouldn’t!

Adoniram Judson, a Baptist missionary who had a desire to go to Burma (present-day Myanmar), a “closed country,” against the pleas of others, took his new wife into the heart of Burma. He labored for thirty-eight years, suffering through cholera, malaria, dysentery, and unknown miseries that would claim the lives of his first wife and second wife, as well as seven of his thirteen children and numerous colleagues. As a result of his resolve, today there are close to four thousand Baptist congregations in the middle of Buddhist Burma. Over half a million believers are represented in those congregations.

C. T. Studd, a wealthy Englishman, came to faith in Christ and, soon thereafter, sensed God’s call to go to China. His family brought a Christian worker in to dissuade him. Studd said, “Let’s ask God then. I don’t want to be pig-headed and go out there of my own accord. I just want to do God’s will.” He sought God’s will and decided that he should indeed go. Then later, when he was fifty years old, he resolved that he should spend the rest of his life in Sudan, when others again urged him to do otherwise! In the next twenty years, he founded the Worldwide Evangelization Crusade through his work in Africa, which has planted gospel seeds all over Africa, Asia, and South America.

John G. Paton served for ten years as the pastor of a church in Glasgow, Scotland, but God began to burden his heart for the New Hebrides. These were Pacific Islands filled with cannibalistic peoples with no knowledge of the gospel. Twenty years earlier, two missionaries had been cannibalized there. Paton received opposition from everywhere. The church offered him more money to stay. When one older man protested, Paton famously said, “Mr. Dixon, you are advanced in years now and your own prospect is soon to be laid in the grave there to be eaten by worms. I confess to you if I can but live and die serving and honoring the Lord Jesus, it will make no difference to me whether I am eaten by cannibals or by worms. And in the great day, my resurrection body will arise as fair as yours in the likeness of our risen Redeemer.” Paton wouldn’t be persuaded, and soon he would be putting the Lord’s Supper elements into the hands of former cannibals that had repented and trusted in Jesus. (Paraphrased from Platt, “A Mission Only the Church Can Stop”)”[3]

Don’t take the easy way out. Follow Jesus down the difficult road. He is worth it.

[1] https://research.lifeway.com/2022/08/09/pastors-identify-modern-day-idols-comfort-tops-list

[2] Matthew 16:24; Mark 8:34; Luke 9:23; 14:27

[3] Tony Merida, Exalting Jesus in Acts, Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary (Nashville: B&H, 2017), 330-332.