Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Taking Time to Enjoy Jesus



Jesus says, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.”
— John 10:10 (NRSV)
Having an intensely intimate relationship with Jesus, I find difficult within my life, if I’m not intentional about making time or taking the time to distance myself from the trappings of the world. As soon as I commit myself to listening to my heart’s desire—to connect with God, besides the world’s politics, people’s scheming, and work and familial conflict—I find Jesus, through the Holy Spirit, enters my understanding, again.
Oh what a wonderful Saviour we have; that he comes to us when we seek him!
That he is there at all times for us is the miracle of access—yet, we are the ones who may push him aside by the intent of our living in choosing the world.
Time with Jesus or Worldliness?
It’s good to clarify what I mean by worldliness. It’s a worldview where comparatively petty concerns weigh us down; where we allow them to. The corrective, of course, is time with Jesus—which is nothing, really, about communing with God in some sort of spiritualised meditation.
Time with Jesus is truly about appreciating the enormous splendour in nonmaterial things. It’s taking the time to enjoy the wonders of creation, the beauties in people, the majesty in a world spinning by its own processes, and appreciating just how big the universe and life is. When life is a prayer we enjoy time with Jesus. Jesus teaches us much, to a point where there is no limit, when we open our eyes and ears and hearts and minds. And when we do open these faculties of sense, the problems of the world wither away in silence and irrelevance.
Time with Jesus will sort just about every common and uncommon concern we might have. When we have practised, and continue to practice, this awesome gift—the continual investment of thought-purpose in God—we are gifted in so many means of salvation that our concept of salvation grows, and the idea of abundance overflows.
Worldliness is the constant trap which beckons us away from the Lord.
As soon as we are ensconced to conflict with others, to needing our own way, to building our nest egg without thought for others, we have found ourselves—again—back in the world, useless for the glory of God.
But time with Jesus will capitalise us for God’s Kingdom.
***
Time with Jesus is truly about appreciating the enormous splendour in nonmaterial things. It’s taking the time to enjoy the wonders of creation, the beauties in people, the majesty in a world spinning by its own processes, and appreciating just how big the universe and life is. When life is a prayer we enjoy time with Jesus.
© 2012 S. J. Wickham.

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