As I watched a group of precious Christians almost fall apart as they experienced difficulty together, my heart heard these words, “Without the reality of an in-depth relationship with me, personally, they will crumble. A corporate experience that thrills and encourages will help, but cannot do the heart work that I can do, one-on-one.”
Making our walk in Jesus personal and intimate is not something that can be faked – at least not long term. We can look good for a while as we skate around doing much in our “time with Him.” However, sooner or later, the facade will crumble and be seen as just what it is – a good-looking facade. We know in His love, He continues to love and hold us anyway all they while waiting for us to wake up.
Time alone with Jesus is the only thing that makes us “real.” It is not just our actions when we are with Him, reading, praying, studying, etc, all of which may be done with almost no interaction in Him. Our brain may be in gear, but our emotions and attention can be involved in an intellectual pursuit. All of those things are intended to engage us with Him, but so often they do not become a dialogue and instead remain a monologue. That is certainly better than nothing, but becoming real in Jesus so that He is able to make changes in us and share His heart with us, takes a determined effort to be quiet in Him and listen to understand. We can do this when reading, praying, studying etc, but must make an effort to engage Him as we do so.
Music is often a help, but if leaned on and used too often, we do not engage Him in silence or other activity. In other words, our time in Him becomes dependent upon music or some other circumstance.
He calls us to come to Him, lay down any burden and then rest in Him. He so longs to talk with us and share. When we really get to know Him, as He shares, our knowledge of the Word becomes enriched and explodes with life and meaning. Without His sharing, we work with words, holy words, in a way that informs our brains but ends up having almost no power in our lives. He makes the difference. My interchange in His heart makes the difference. His thoughts on matters – matter. Yes, the Bible gives us His thoughts and must always be read and studied. However, He wants to give us the personal commentary on those words. What a difference it makes when I hear them from His heart in His heart.
I feel like I am going round and around one simply point – let’s get with Him! It is that simple. Let’s do it and *allow Him to know us and us know Him so sweetly that nothing can move us from Him.
*”But now, after you have known God, or rather are known by God, ….” Galatians 4:9
“He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father. And I will love him and will reveal Myself to him.” John 14:21 MEV
Mannaword 