Happy Monday!
I have been thinking about my relationship with Jesus this week. I thought about how much I enjoy sitting and talking to Him. I thought about what a good listener He is. I thought about how much He has blessed me. I thought about how many prayers He has answered for me. It’s wonderful having a relationship with Jesus!
But then that word, relationship, started to bother me.
I have many acquaintances. You know, the people I talk to but never seem to hear? I even ask myself why, even though I talk to these people, I really don’t know them. This is just a guess, based on personal experience, but could it be that I am talking but forget to listen?
I don’t want to know Jesus as an acquaintance. I want a relationship where He hears my hurts, my doubts, my fears and my prayers, even if I can’t utter a word. At the same time, I want to hear Him. I want to listen so closely that I feel the faintest stirring in my heart, His guidance in whatever form He chooses to give it and occasionally the subtlest feeling of His arms around me when I am at my lowest point. I don’t want to feel like my faith is more like religion than relationship!
We were created to know Jesus (God, the Holy Spirit) and have a close, personal relationship with Him– a life-changing experience that will affect every aspect of your life and bring you joy, hope and purpose like nothing else!
To know Jesus isn’t just knowing of Jesus. Knowing Jesus involves having an authentic, personal relationship with the One who knows the number of hairs on your head. He created you to be the unique person that you are!
To know Jesus isn’t just going to church every week. It isn’t even growing up in a Christian home, even though that certainly doesn’t hurt.
For me, Knowing Jesus is a little like a wonderful friendship. It’s a relationship based on grace, as opposed to rules and regulations you may have known at some point in your life. It is based on total trust that He knows what is best for me, even when I want to think that I do.
There is a lot of give and take in my relationship with Jesus. I give Him my problems, my sins and He gives me His grace and forgiveness. He gives me love and mercy and I give Him praise and worship. He gives me guidance and discipline and I do my very best to never forget how much He loves me and wants me to be with Him for eternity.
I don’t want to just know of Jesus. I want to know Him so well that I can always say I have real relationship with Him!
Do you know of Jesus or do you truly know Jesus?
Pray Unceasingly!!
Lois