Anglican Devotional 21 September 2026 By The Daily Fountain of the Church Of Nigeria

TOPIC – Follow Me.

READ: Matthew 9: 9-13

9 As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him.

10 While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples.

11 When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

12 On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. 13 But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’[a] For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

THE MESSAGE:

Saint Matthew is one of the 12 apostles of Jesus Christ and is remembered on September 21 of every year. The name Matthew comes from the Greek, Mattaioś, which means ‘gift of Yahweh.’ Matthew was a tax collector (Matthew 9:14; 10:3), a profession whose members were hated by the Jews because they cheated a lot and worked for Rome. This was the image of Matthew when Jesus met him and invited him to “Follow Me” (verse 9). Matthew left his profiting career and followed Jesus. From that moment, Matthew followed Jesus who was the Way.

When God calls us to follow or obey Him, we are to do it without delay as Matthew did. Sometimes the decision to follow where He leads requires difficult or painful choices. All the same, we must decide to leave behind the things that would keep us from following Jesus, for we have no one else to whom we can go who has the words of eternal life (John 6:68). Again, we should never be tempted to follow any man no matter who he is. Jesus to us today, “Follow me.”

PRAYER: Father, may I ever follow Your Son, never looking back. Amen.