3 Questions You Must Ask To Move From Following Passively To Following Actively
Active Following Makes A World Of Difference
Dear #DailyFollower,
I trust you are having a fantastic time as you wind down the page for 2024 and are as excited as I am for all that awaits us in 2025.
One of the many things that excites me is working on #DailyFollower artefacts to support believers in their quests to consistently and actively follow Jesus daily.
In a social media world where “follow me“ has become a very present part of our daily existence, it’s very easy to take the call to follow Jesus as a call to be a part of the orbit of a famous influence - to know what He’s up to, be a part of the beneficiaries of His frequent acts of kindness, and occasionally support things He’s interested in.
Following Jesus this way is what I call passively following Jesus, being close enough to know what He is doing and blessing but not close enough to be an active partner in advancing His agenda.
I believe 2025 will be a year when more believers become more interested in becoming active followers of Jesus who submit to His making process.
In today’s letter, I share thoughts about the first steps to becoming an active daily follower.
I took these steps in 2020, which kick-started my journey to becoming an active follower of Jesus.
Before I share the steps, let me state a key difference between a passive and an active follower of Jesus:
An active follower is wholly surrendered to Jesus and can be counted on to be available and yielded to doing all that must be done to advance Christ’s agenda.
A passive follower follows Christ on their terms, available when it’s convenient to be available, and as such, can’t be counted on to do what must be done to advance Christ’s agenda.
I'd like you to reflect on your journey with Christ to date. Has your following been passive or active?
Whichever the case, the following questions will help you commit to a quest for consistent and active following.
#1: Why do I follow Jesus?
I remember I needed to dig deep to find my answer to this question, as I have always been within Christian circles all my life and didn’t know any other way of life but the Jesus way.
Following Jesus because doing so is the socially acceptable thing to do isn’t a good enough reason to follow actively.
I found my ‘why’ for following Christ by staying in His Word and asking why He demands my following.
Stay in the Word to find your ‘why’ for following Jesus. Once you do, move on to question/step #2.
#2: What does following Jesus look like?
Thankfully, the Scriptures provide examples of what following Christ looks like, so finding my answer to this question just required a little more study in the Word.
Following Jesus was much more than being an active member of any Church denomination. Although I’d done that for years, I was still not an active follower.
I found my ‘what’ for following Christ in the stories of Stephen, James, Peter, Paul, and contemporary believers who actively followed Jesus. These men demonstrated what following Jesus looks like and what it could look like for me.
Our reasons for following Christ are as unique as our faces, but we find our reasons for following Jesus in the stories of patriarchs of faith and with the help of the Holy Spirit.
#3: How do I follow Jesus practically?
Knowing what following Jesus looks like and taking action to follow Jesus are two different things.
As quickly as I started paying attention to digging into the Word to find my answers for the ‘why‘ and ‘what‘ of following Christ, I got a good picture of what following Him looks like, but I struggled to translate what I knew into action.
To translate what we know about following Jesus to the actions required to follow Jesus actively, we must do what Christ said in Luke 9:23, EXB:
Jesus said to all of them, “If ·people want [anyone wants] to follow me, they must ·give up the things they want [deny themselves; set aside their own interests]. They must ·be willing to give up their lives [take up their cross] daily and follow me.
This verse shaped my knowledge and understanding of how to follow Christ, but I needed wisdom to make it practical.
I found my ‘how‘ for following Christ practically by taking the words in the verse above to God in prayers and receiving wisdom from His Spirit for how to give up the things I want (denying myself, setting aside my own interests) and give up my life (taking up my cross) daily and following Him.
If you diligently and prayerfully engage with these three questions/steps, your journey as a follower of Jesus will shift from passive to active following or from one degree of active following to a greater depth of active following.
I close my thoughts in today’s letter with why active following matters.
It matters because God desires that every follower receive the full scope of Christ’s promise to make every follower a fisher of people and much more.
There is much more to your life than you’ve experienced today, and actively following Jesus is your key to unlocking your more.
I would love to hear from you, so please use the comment section to share your thoughts about your ‘why’, ‘what’, and ‘how‘ of following. Or your transition from a passive follower to an active follower.
Till tomorrow.
Yours faithfully,
John - One #DailyFollower