“Jesus on my Mind”:Experiencing the Relationship

Experiencing the Relationship

I am flesh and blood. God is spirit. You might argue that we can hear God, you know, hear His Word, hear the preacher. That is one thing, but can I have a full relationship with someone I cannot see, taste, touch, or even smell? Yes you can. God offers a real personal relationship to all of us.
This personal relationship is a miraculous process blending God’s will to redeem and sanctify us and our human free will. We can refuse, but it starts with God. He offers a personal relationship to us. He put a longing into us to seek Him. We intuitively sense this both spiritually and humanly. Spiritually speaking we know what it is. Ps. 42: 1-2 “As the deer panteth after the water brooks, so my soul panteth after thee.” God put that longing there. Humanly speaking we recognize a thirst, an empty space in our lives and we don’t know how to quench it. How do we respond?
Some try to quench it with money and a bigger house, drugs, sex, or power and a better job. Yet, no matter how much they drink themselves full, at the end of the day they still are empty. There is a great line from the movie Key Largo. Humphrey Bogart’s character asks the gangster Rocco, played by Edward G. Robinson, this question. “What is it that you want Rocco, do you just want more?” Robinson’s character replies, “Yeah, more. That’s it, Rocco wants more.” And Rocco’s quest to fill the void with “more” ended in self- destruction.
Yes, I believe that we can all agree that in our quiet moments there is an empty spot in all of us. Filling that emptiness starts with God, not us. And to fill it God offers a relationship to all of us. Not a figurative all, but a literal all. Let’s look at some examples that prove that God offers it to all without distinction.
Hagar:  We know her story. She could not stand Sara and ran away. Later, Sara could not stand her and cast Hagar out into the desert. See Gen 16:7, 21:17 and please take note of the Angel. Of special importance in the Old Testament is the Angel (Gen. 16:7; 22:11; 31:11). This angel is depicted as a visible manifestation of God Himself. He has powers and characteristics that belong only to God, such as the power to forgive sins (Ex. 23:20–21). His similarities to Jesus lead many scholars to conclude that He is the pre-incarnate Word present with God at the creation of the world (John 1:1, 14).. Once the ANGEL came to Hagar. Once He called to Hagar. This relationship was face to face. It was personal. It started with God. He met with a run-away slave girl in the desert.
Solomon: Gibeon was the great high place. It was about 10 miles north of Jerusalem in the hill country. We read in 1 Kings 3:5-13, 4:29 that the Temple was not yet built. The construction had not begun. Solomon is, maybe 23 or 25 years old. David brought the Ark to Jerusalem, but the tabernacle and the brazen alter were at Gibeon. There, Solomon offers a thousand burnt offerings on that alter. He was already governing for perhaps three years or more. Solomon already made treaties with Egypt, married Pharaoh’s daughter. He dealt with Joab and Shimei. He is experiencing the intoxicating flush of raw power. Yet when God enters into a dialogue, he says “I am a little Child.” “Give me wisdom to govern.” The request he made, the prayer he made, he made them to God, while he was sleeping. This relationship was personal. It was a real dialogue between real entities and it started with God. God came to an anointed king in the high place.
Buck:  I hiked 6 miles and three hours deep into the wilderness of the San Gabriel Mountains, north of Pasadena, California. Heavy rains had washed out the trail across the head of a gully and it was now a barren slope made of loose shale. I crossed and started to slide downward toward the drop-off. There were no trees to grab. Happening so fast. Did not have time to be frightened. Did not think to pray. Mentally preparing myself to go over the ridge and try to do a paratrooper tuck and roll landing on the rocks and boulders about 15 feet below. The uncontrolled slide stopped right at the lip of the drop-off. I remember thinking. “I don’t know why you stopped, but you did, now get off right now,” and scrambled my way to a tree about 8 feet off to my left. I felt the presence of a protective spirit being and was holding on safely to a real tree, the real evidence of that protection. This relationship was felt and was personal. It started with God. He came to a clueless Christian in a mountain wilderness.

   God offers it to everyone

Solomon was a young man. He was a king. He had everything. He was in a high place. God appeared in a dream. Hagar was a young woman and a runaway slave. She needed everything. She was in a desert. God appeared to her. Buck was a mature man. He was a working man. He wanted everything. He was in a wilderness. God appeared in an emergency.
We are surrounded by the presence of God, even when we are not aware of it. God always seeks us. 

Getting to know you

A complete relationship is two-way, not just one-way. Deborah Kerr and Yul Brenner stared in the movie “The King and I.” It was the story of the English school marm and the King of Siam. They were complete strangers. She was a prim widow with one son. He had dozens of wives and children. They were separated by race, by culture, by religion, by economic status, by education. Yet Anna and King Mongkug spent time together. They got to know each other. They built a relationship. They learned to care deeply for each other.

Getting to know Jesus

In like manner spending time with Jesus leads us to a deeper relationship and understanding of Him. He already knows what we like. We get to know what He likes. We get to know what He is doing in the world and we want to join him in that. For example we get to know that He is patient with everyone and does not pay back wrong for wrong. We learn that He likes it when we are patient with everyone, when we do not pay back wrong for wrong (I Thessalonians 5:14-22): And we want to please Him through acts of service such as cutting grandma’s lawn for free or saying bed time prayers with our pre-schooler or through organized ministries such as a Sunday School program or a Community Service Kitchen or County Food Bank.
The act of service does not lead to a relationship with Jesus, the relationship with Jesus leads to the act of service. We see Him working in the world and we find we want to imitate Him and be where He is working. When we have a relationship with Jesus, Jesus is on our mind. When He is on our mind, the things that please Him are in our thoughts, and our actions flow from our thoughts.
The key is that the closer we stay to Jesus by prayer, by regular Church attendance and fellowship, by reading the bible, by fasting the better we can get to know Him, to hear Him speak to us and the more on guard we are against making a carnal knee-jerk response to insult, pain, frustration, desire or time depravation stress. We choose to make Him a part of our lives.

Jesus on my mind

We mentioned prayer, study, meditation and fasting. There is an additional approach to the relationship. Start to think of Jesus often and talk to Him. Start to think of Him as really being there. Not figuratively as “He is here in my life”, but literally as He is right here. He is a friend who is standing there behind you while you are cooking or fishing or shopping or laying brick. You don’t see him, since He is behind you, but you can talk to Him, out loud if you like, and even listen to Him. You don’t need to see Him, because you know he is just behind you, He is real and He is there. Since you know that he is there, it is easy to talk to Him, always. Is this silly, delusional? Does it work? You be the judge.
Here is an interesting example from history. As events unfolded, Europe would be devastated. Germany would lay in ruins with one half of its population dead. The Holy Roman Empire would die. The Catholic Counter-Reformation would be blunted and a new political religious realignment would be imposed upon all of Europe. Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection (1614-1691) was a French soldier captured by the Germans during the 30 years war, accused of espionage, and was sentenced to hang. He was released and returned to his unit. He was wounded in the leg at Rambervillers in 1635. His military career was ended. He attempted to live as a hermit at the bottom of society. He later served as a valet to the treasurer of the king of France at the top of society.
In the Practice and Presence of God, originally published posthumously in 1692, Lawrence said, “There is not in the world a kind of life more sweet and delightful, than that of a continual conversation with God: those only can comprehend it who practice and experience it; yet I do not advise you to do it from that motive; it is not pleasure which we ought to seek in this exercise; but let us do it form a principle of love, and because God would have us.”

Continual conversation with God

A concrete example of this is found in a letter he wrote to a soldier friend, “…one act of inward worship, though upon a march, and sword in hand, are prayers which, however short, are nevertheless very acceptable to God. …Let him then think of God the most he can; let him accustom himself, by degrees, to this small but holy exercise; nobody perceives it, and nothing is easier than to repeat often in the day these little internal adorations.”
Is this constant talking to Jesus delusional? Around Pittsburgh, some have joked that there is no 20 year-old alive today who has seen the Pirates with a winning season. Consider this, in 1640, when Lawrence entered into the Carmelite monastery in Paris as a lay brother, there was no 26 year-old alive who knew a day of peace in Europe. I can’t believe that a man of his experience was silly or delusional or naive. In fact Lawrence himself addressed critics and said that the union he had with God was not delusional.

Results of Jesus in us

What Christians should take from Lawrence’s example is that we can be in contact with Jesus constantly, at work, at play, at force of arms. And the habitual practice of staying in contact with Him will change our character. When faced with a situation we may very well, without knowing why, ask, “What would Jesus do”? And the more we get to know Him, when faced with a situation we may very well, without knowing why, just do what Jesus would do. And that is a relationship worth experiencing.
Brethren, may the grace and peace of Jesus be with you and your families.

Rev. George Relic, Assistant Pastor
Fountain of Life, Washington, PA
A congregation of Grace Communion International