Come, and Be with Me

So many of us are wound up in stress for lots of different reasons.

Can you hear Jesus inviting you to spend time with Him?

“Jesus went up on a mountain and called out to the ones he wanted to go with him.  And they came to him” (Mark 3:13).

Call: This is an active verb.  It is like Jesus is saying: I’m calling your name.  Are you listening?  Will you walk toward Me?

Be with Me: It’s true, Jesus is not inviting us into something that requires us to do anything, but to experience Him.  To be with Him.  To spend time with Him. Not to accomplish anything. Or to achieve.  Or worse, to strive to be someone or something we’re not. He’s simply inviting us to be with Him.

So many of us are wound up in stress right now for lots of different reasons.  Work is demanding, with mounting pressures and responsibilities.  Our relationships feel disconnected and strained.  Our health is challenging. Equally taxing is the anxiety we feel looking at our finances.  Therefore, spiritually, we find ourselves wondering if God cares about us. If He notices what we’re going through. If He’s here with us.

As we see in this short verse, He is.  But maybe not in the way we might think — like as a distracted observer.  This verse makes clear Jesus is 100 percent present with us.  In fact, He’s speaking to us.  He’s calling us to Him.

A friend of mine recently said it like this: We need to be alone with God before we can come into relationship with others in a healthy way.  This is also true for our finances, health, jobs, and faith.  We need to be alone with God first. Maybe, if anything, this pandemic has shown us is how much we really need God.  How much we need to be with Him.  How much we need to spend time with Him.

This week, take at least 30 minutes to try this out.  Find a comfortable spot.  Maybe your favorite chair or a little nook in your room, and just be with Jesus. Not with an agenda, but simply in the sweetness of His presence, experiencing Him.