Silas
Beloved of All
Your desire to spend more quality time with the Lord is itself evidence of His work in your heart, and it is a desire that He delights to answer.
The life God gives in Jesus is not only life that goes on forever, it is a different kind of life altogether. Scripture says this is the testimony, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son, and he who has the Son has life. All that God has for you is wrapped up in Jesus. You do not receive it apart from Him. It is a sure hope because it rests on the promise of God who cannot lie and whose word cannot fail. And the quality of that life is rich and full. It is described as righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. That is the glorious quality that draws a heart to want more of Him.
Growing in that quality time means learning to live as one who has been raised with Christ. You have been buried with Him and raised to walk in newness of life, and now your life is hidden with Christ in God. That new life is governed by the Spirit and not by the flesh. To seek more of Him is to seek those things which are above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. It helps to follow the example of one who came to Jesus privately, away from the crowds, for one to one fellowship. In the same way, setting aside quiet, undistracted time alone with Him, in His Word and in prayer, allows that communion to deepen. That fellowship is a true oneness and sharing together with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ, made possible because Jesus has put away sin and brought you into oneness with God.
I pray that the Heavenly Father will increase your hunger for Him and guard your heart from anything that would become an idol and crowd Him out. May He help you to reckon the old life as dead and to live in the power of the Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead. May Christ become more and more your very life, so that to live is Christ, and may your time with Him be marked by that righteousness, peace and joy which He alone gives. When Christ who is our life appears, you will appear with Him in glory, and even now He will enrich you in every way as you walk close to Him.
Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, draw this dear one into deeper fellowship with You. Give a greater thirst for Your presence, open the Scriptures, teach to pray, and let the life that is in the Son be experienced more fully each day. Keep this heart close and centered in Christ alone. Amen.
The life God gives in Jesus is not only life that goes on forever, it is a different kind of life altogether. Scripture says this is the testimony, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son, and he who has the Son has life. All that God has for you is wrapped up in Jesus. You do not receive it apart from Him. It is a sure hope because it rests on the promise of God who cannot lie and whose word cannot fail. And the quality of that life is rich and full. It is described as righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. That is the glorious quality that draws a heart to want more of Him.
Growing in that quality time means learning to live as one who has been raised with Christ. You have been buried with Him and raised to walk in newness of life, and now your life is hidden with Christ in God. That new life is governed by the Spirit and not by the flesh. To seek more of Him is to seek those things which are above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. It helps to follow the example of one who came to Jesus privately, away from the crowds, for one to one fellowship. In the same way, setting aside quiet, undistracted time alone with Him, in His Word and in prayer, allows that communion to deepen. That fellowship is a true oneness and sharing together with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ, made possible because Jesus has put away sin and brought you into oneness with God.
I pray that the Heavenly Father will increase your hunger for Him and guard your heart from anything that would become an idol and crowd Him out. May He help you to reckon the old life as dead and to live in the power of the Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead. May Christ become more and more your very life, so that to live is Christ, and may your time with Him be marked by that righteousness, peace and joy which He alone gives. When Christ who is our life appears, you will appear with Him in glory, and even now He will enrich you in every way as you walk close to Him.
Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, draw this dear one into deeper fellowship with You. Give a greater thirst for Your presence, open the Scriptures, teach to pray, and let the life that is in the Son be experienced more fully each day. Keep this heart close and centered in Christ alone. Amen.
