SPENDING TIME WITH JESUS

“Jesus and his disciples went out into the Judean countryside, where He spent some time with them…” (John 3:22)

It’s been almost two months since my last writing. So I decided that today would be the day I would return to it. But I was not expecting the blessing that God had in store for me.

When I opened my Bible and turned to the point in the Scripture where I had left off, John 3:22, there it was. As I read the words my heart thrilled at the sight. When my mind trailed my eyes and continued reading, my heart stood firm, refusing to budge. It was transfixed in a gaze upon a scene so captivating it simply could not walk away. My heart had seen Jesus. It was a scene of Jesus just spending time with His disciples.

While this scripture has always been there, it spoke to my heart in a special way this time. Isn’t it true that when we love someone we want to spend time with them? To enjoy their presence, with no agenda, no purpose other than just spending time together. This verse revealed that Jesus is very much like that. He loves us and wants to spend time with us.

What a joy for us to just spend time with Jesus. Love demands that we put aside all our agendas and spend time with Him. But no matter how much we may desire to be with Him, we cannot know, as profoundly as He does, how essential to our spiritual health and well being our spending time with Him is. Thus it is Jesus who takes the initiative to come to us. He chose us, we didn’t choose Him.

As you read the Gospel of John, or any Gospel for that matter, you begin to realize that the initiative is all His. He is the one doing the seeking. He truly came to seek us out, and save us from our sin. He comes to us yet desiring to fellowship with us and just spend time with us.

Fanny J. Crosby knew the joy of spending time with Jesus when she wrote:
O the pure delight of a single hour
That before Thy throne I spend,
When I kneel in prayer,
And with Thee, my God,
I commune as friend with Friend.

It is vital that you find a time in every day to be alone with Jesus, just spending time in His presence. He desires it more than you do.