Following Jesus = obeying

I think many people want to follow Jesus, learn of him, and see supernatural things happen,
but we just get snagged in the obeying part of following.
What does it look like to follow Jesus?
It looks like continual obedience,
In the big things and in the little things,
When it's easy and when it hurts,
When your surrounded and built up, and when your physically alone,
When nearly everything in your body is yearning for something else,
usually just a feeling of comfort, pleasure, control, or understanding,
but you still hear that small voice that says otherwise and you chose it instead,
When you reason it out based on what YOU know and it doesn't make since
but you step forward and do it anyway.
When logically you can think of lots of good reasons not to or why you should,
but you don't confine your actions to your human logic.
This is also obeying.

Following also means fully obeying, not just part of the way then stopping when it gets hard,
when you no longer know what to do or say, or allowing yourself to get distracted by something easier,
It means not being satisfied with just getting out of the boat but letting go,
it means taking the steps away from the boat, but specifically towards Jesus
It means not being happy with just being happy you shared your faith,
but having an actual conversation back and forth so that you can be like Christ,
and meet them where they are, love them where they are, and then let God change their life.

Partial obedience still ends in disobedience.
A book only 3/4 written doesn't give the ending wanted.
A conversation lacking the subject desired is pointless.
Skewing the detailed commands isn't fully obeying,
it isn't fully following, it isn't fully trusting.
Obeying in the little things will help you obey in the bigger things.
Obeying in the little things let's God use you in the great things.
How do you expect God to use you in great ways, or for you to witness amazing miracles if you don't want to obey to get there.
If David wasn't obedient in the fields with his sheep, he wouldn't have been prepared for Goliath.
If he wasn't obedient out in the caves and isolation, he wouldn't have been prepared for being King.
The fully obedience in times when it might not seem like much,
in the end, it proves vital.

Following means obeying.
Loving means obeying.
Greatest command is to Love the Lord with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. (mark 12:30)
"If you love me, you will obey what I command." (John 14:15)
So to love God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength can look like:
obeying God with all your minutes, with all of your thoughts, with all of your efforts, with all of your conversations, with all of your schoolwork, with all of your interactions with strangers/ friends/ cafeteria workers/ professors/ classmates/ family, and with all of your constraint towards evil/human desires.

Obedience doesn't always mean success,
at least not in the way we see it.
Sometimes our obedience leads to our failures,
which leads to opportunities of honesty, reality, humility, and showing where our strength comes from.
Obedience to the one who's right, does not mean you will always be.
It usually means you will be humble, you will be used, you will love more, you will speak truth, and you may have to apologize for previous actions.

Celebrate the victories of obedience.
-A week straight of reading the Bible.
-Admitting Yes, you are a Christian.
-Praying out loud.
-Walking away from the things you know you shouldn't.
-Being willing to share.
-Sharing what you believe.
-Standing up against the majority.
-Having a conversation about what you and they believe.
-Explaining and praying with someone to start a relationship with Jesus.
Celebrate the obedience you see in yourself and in others.
Encourage each other with this. Do not grow content with it, but celebrate and encourage each other.