"Jesus Time" Comes First

Hey there all!

So this past weekend the staff of HDC was busy hosting a junior high group from Petra. It was a great time, and I had the opportunity to give a session yesterday morning. I decided to write a post about the things I talked about, since it was all basic and good stuff to talk about. So here it is: my post about communion with God.

I was given 8 pages of things I should talk about, so the topic wasn't a "Samuel Jablonski Original." The topic was communion with God, which is a big name for spending time with God by reading the Bible, praying, or something else of the sort, to hear His voice. I first talked about how very important it is to devote time daily for just you and God. Loving God is, after all, the greatest commandment (Mark 12:30). We talked a little about what communion with God looks like, and I shared how I called it "Jesus time" during my trip to Albania. I would just be alone in my room with my Bible, either listening to worship music, a Cornerstone podcast, or nothing at all. It was really amazing how God spoke through those times, and I really enjoyed them.

I then talked about the example that Jesus gave us during his time on Earth. The main example I talked about was Mark 1:35-38. It's an amazing account of Jesus' integrity for his relationship with his Father. Jesus gets up super early, goes to a place of seclusion, away from the people and noise of the village at which he was staying, and prays. Then instead of continuing his ministry there at the village, where things were going pretty well, Jesus says to his disciples that they are going somewhere else to preach. This was after Jesus did a bunch of miracles and got the villagers' attention.

Why would Jesus pick up and move somewhere else when the whole village was clamoring for more of Jesus? The whole village could have become believers!

Jesus demonstrates how high of a priority his communion with God is. He got away from the noise and people around him, He listened for God's voice, and He obeyed.

I'm sure there was a bunch of activity going on in the village when he was there, but Jesus knew that he needed to spend time with God, to fill up, to listen for God's voice. He mentions this importance later on in John 15 (one of my favorite chapters of the Bible). He says in verse 5, "I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing." He compares our relationship with God like the relationship of a branch and a vine. The branch needs the vine to grow and to bear fuit; a branch separated from the vine equals a dead branch. Not much a dead branch can do (you may say that last sentence in a Yoda voice).

So keeping up our relationship with God is the only way we can stay spiritually healthy. This "Jesus time" is absolutely vital for us to continue pursuing God and for us to listen for God's voice, so we can hear His instruction. God remains in us when we remain in Him, when we continue going back to Him. An important part of this aspect of our relationship with God is our listening for His voice. Jesus talks about how his followers hear his voice and follow him in John 10:1-16. He calls himself the shepherd, and he calls us his sheep who hear and know his voice. One thing I mentioned during the session was that when we enter Jesus' sheep pen (become his follower), we need to learn how to hear God's voice. The hardest part of this is to quiet all the other voices going on in our lives; it's tough to tune out the noise of life. I'm assuming it's because this is a hard thing to do that prayer closets were invented. Like Jesus, we need to separate ourselves from everything else, to go to a solitary place, so we can hear God's voice more clearly.

I find it more difficult to connect with what I'm reading in the Bible if I'm around other people; I get easily distracted. That's why I need this alone time with God: so that I can better hear what He wants to tell me, so that I can be focused on the Word and nothing else, so that I can have a worthwhile "Jesus time."