OUR RESPONSE TO THE CROSS

“Come to me with your ears wide open. Listen, and you will find life.”
​Isaiah 55:3 NLT

The excitement of Easter is waning. Other spring activities and concerns are rushing in to dominate our attention.  May I invite you to take a few precious minutes to sit with our Lord and ask him how you are to respond this year to his beautiful act of obedience and love by dying on the Cross for you?

To hear correctly, we must put aside all our earthly desires and motivations, like having a strong marriage, healthy happy children, a good job.  Those are all good and admirable, but, if we really search our spirits, and not our souls, we may find a deeper desire, an eternal tug.

Why did God create you, design you, choose you and call you?  You have made a commitment to him, to love him and to obey him.  But why?  What does God want from you more than any other thing?  Are you sure you know? 

If you said he did all that so you would serve him, you are wrong.  That is not his highest priority.  Many other good ideas may have come to mind, but unless you know God as your loving Father, you may not have understood his highest desire for you.  He just wants you to come, spend time with him, get to really know Jesus, and as a result to get to really know yourself.

You see our God is always, at all times and in every circumstance calling us to, “Come!”  Come into his presence.  The door is open through Christ.  Come willing to listen, not to talk.  He wants to share his secrets as he pours out his mercy and grace.  Sitting in his presence, listening and soaking in his love will cause you to be strengthened, equipped, made wise in deep spiritual understanding.  From that you can go and bring others back to him and change our world.

So, “Come!” Sit at Jesus’ feet like Mary, Lazarus’ sister.  Or let the Father hold you in his loving fatherly arms.  Come, sit with Christ under a tree by the Sea of Galilee and hear him singing over you.  No matter where you find him, don’t miss this.  It is what you were made for, to live your life out of the presence of God.

Pray with me: Father God, forgive me for allowing busyness and the concerns of my day to rob me of the most important thing you desire of me.  Holy Spirit, convict me of wasting the precious opportunities I have in coming to Jesus and soaking in his presence. Teach me to listen to God.  In the kind and powerful name of Jesus, I pray. Amen.

Dear friend, may your spirit be made hungry for more of God.  May you learn to enter into his presence, so that all his power, wisdom and understanding are made available as you need them.  May your heart sing for joy as you respond to his call to come. You were made for this!   Amen.
Mary Sumner
April 26, 2019