Could God be lonely? This is somewhat of an abstract thought. We often speak of having a relationship with God or with Jesus. Yet I would contend that God IS lonely because our relationship time tends to be relegated to 10 minutes, maybe even a half hour, of us talking to Him. Seldom do we take the time to have a true relationship, to sit down with Jesus and ask what is on His heart. Do we know what is making Jesus weep today?
So,
what really keeps us from doing this?
Yes, there is the obvious that He is not physically here to sit and have
coffee or tea with. But, I think there
is something that goes much deeper with us.
In a word, I suggest the answer could be ‘fear’.
Sitting and truly listening to God through the
power of the Holy Spirit makes us confront several scriptural realities. The first is that “His ways are not our
ways.” (Isaiah 55:9) What if I discover
I’ve been headed in the wrong direction all this time? What if like Peter, He challenges my theology
and understanding of what is true?
Secondly, sitting with Jesus suggests that like Peter, He may ask us to
go where we would rather not go (John 15:18).
Both of these realities suggest a much deeper
issue. Do we truly love and trust
God? In our minds, we know God is love
as we are told in 1 John 4. But, without
taking time with Jesus, how do we really know that this is true? Will God ask me things that make me face a
part of me that I don’t wish to face?
Will He tell me to do something that I can’t do?
I am far from being able to listen to Christ
well, but the one thing I have learned is that He is pure love, and the burden
of anything He asks is gentle and light.
Jesus will not snuff out a smoldering wick, but rather He will nurture
it into a flame. (Isaiah 42:3) God is the loving Father who wants the very
best for you.
Today,
I invite all of us to take time to listen to the mind, the heart and the words
of Jesus. Let us find a time and place
where He can speak to us, where we can hear Him call us His beloved. It takes time to quiet our hearts, to put
‘life’ aside and to allow Jesus to show us His burden and His yoke. In the Gospel of John, John spends all of
chapter 15 describing the loving relationship where Jesus abides in us and us
in Him. This is the place where Jesus
moves into our hearts and He becomes part of us. I hope that even today you can find time to
sit quietly - long enough to hear His gentle voice calling you by name.
