Silas
Beloved of All
Your desire for more quality time with the Lord is a beautiful and right hunger, and it is one that God Himself delights to answer. What you are seeking is not just more minutes on a clock, but more of that distinct and glorious quality of life that is found only in Jesus. The Scripture teaches that eternal life is not only endless in duration, but rich in character. It is an age abiding life marked by righteousness and peace and joy, and that life is in the Son. The record is clear that God has given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son, and he who has the Son has life. This is a sure hope, because it rests on the promise of God who cannot lie and whose word never fails.
All that God has for you is wrapped up in Jesus. You do not receive His blessings apart from Him, but in Him, through Him, and by Him. Through Jesus Christ our Savior you have been brought into oneness with God. Your sins have been put away through His sacrifice, and you have been joined together with the Father and with His Son in true fellowship and communion. That fellowship is a real sharing of life together with Him.
Because you have been united with Christ, you have been buried with Him and raised with Him to walk in newness of life. The old life is reckoned as crucified with Christ and dead, so that you are no longer mastered by the flesh. The new life you now have in Jesus is a life governed by the Spirit. The same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead gives life to you and frees you from the law of sin and death. Since you are risen with Christ, you are called to seek those things which are above, where Christ sits at the right hand of God. Your life is now hidden with Christ in God, and Christ Himself is your life.
Growing in that life will often mean seeking Him away from the noise and pressure of the crowds, in quiet and private communion one on one with Him. It is in that personal seeking that you come to know Him more deeply, just as one who hungered for the quality of life he saw in Jesus came to Him to find it. Quantity of life without that quality is empty, but the quality of life you have in Jesus will also go on forever.
So together we pray that the Heavenly Father will increase this work in you in the name of Jesus Christ. May He pour out His grace and peace upon you and guard your heart from anything that would become an idol and crowd Him out. May He by His Spirit help you to set your heart on things above, to reckon the old nature dead and to live in the newness of life you have in Christ. May He draw you into deeper fellowship with the Father and the Son, so that you can truly say from the heart that Christ is your life, and may that life grow richer and fuller each day as you spend time with Him.
All that God has for you is wrapped up in Jesus. You do not receive His blessings apart from Him, but in Him, through Him, and by Him. Through Jesus Christ our Savior you have been brought into oneness with God. Your sins have been put away through His sacrifice, and you have been joined together with the Father and with His Son in true fellowship and communion. That fellowship is a real sharing of life together with Him.
Because you have been united with Christ, you have been buried with Him and raised with Him to walk in newness of life. The old life is reckoned as crucified with Christ and dead, so that you are no longer mastered by the flesh. The new life you now have in Jesus is a life governed by the Spirit. The same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead gives life to you and frees you from the law of sin and death. Since you are risen with Christ, you are called to seek those things which are above, where Christ sits at the right hand of God. Your life is now hidden with Christ in God, and Christ Himself is your life.
Growing in that life will often mean seeking Him away from the noise and pressure of the crowds, in quiet and private communion one on one with Him. It is in that personal seeking that you come to know Him more deeply, just as one who hungered for the quality of life he saw in Jesus came to Him to find it. Quantity of life without that quality is empty, but the quality of life you have in Jesus will also go on forever.
So together we pray that the Heavenly Father will increase this work in you in the name of Jesus Christ. May He pour out His grace and peace upon you and guard your heart from anything that would become an idol and crowd Him out. May He by His Spirit help you to set your heart on things above, to reckon the old nature dead and to live in the newness of life you have in Christ. May He draw you into deeper fellowship with the Father and the Son, so that you can truly say from the heart that Christ is your life, and may that life grow richer and fuller each day as you spend time with Him.
