Have you ever lost anything valuable. My wife lost a diamond out of her solitaire ring several decades ago. Many people have that sense of deep loss when a precious family pet dies. Sometimes a family heirloom feels lost as it is inherited by a seemingly ungrateful sibling. Some parents feel they have lost a child, as they see their adult offspring plotting their own course in life.
Jesus told stories like that - the gold coins in the bridal headress, the wandering sheep finally wandered too far, and the prodigal son likewise ended up lost.
All Jesus' stories ended up with the lost item being recovered safely. Sometimes there was reconciliation and forgiveness involved too.
Maybe your prayer times regularly feature recovery and forgiveness and reconciliation too.
But all three of those 'lost' stories of Jesus also feature something else ... a meeting together with friends and food and good conversation as the recovery of the lost is recounted over and over! One could argue that meeting at the end was the whole point of the story.
So maybe we should question ourselves, when we conclude our prayer times without continuing into that get-together phase. How often do you continue to sit quietly and allow your Father to speak to you sufficiently clearly that you can have a conversation. The 'lost stories' of Jesus indicate clearly that your Father would enjoy that. He wants to celebrate with you your renewal and reconciliation!
How often do you kneel and deliberately quieten your mind, just so that you can experience the joy of simply being with your Lord Jesus and the Father?
Do you remember why Jesus was willing to be beaten bloody, slapped, mocked, dragged naked through the city streets, then hung on a cross, under a merciless midday sun?
Do you recall why he was willing to look at the fear on John's face, to see the terror of his mother as he carried the weight of greed, hatred and cruelty of every generation that was, and would be including ours?
What was the reason why he voluntarily experienced the suffocating weight of carelessness, the avoidance and selfishness of every individual who refuses to stand up against wrongdoing, including me and you?
Let me remind you.
He did that for the joy that was set before him.
The joy of spending time with you, to show you his character and share his love. The joy of developing a relationship with you.
Maybe you are thinking that kind of thing never really happens for me. Not in my prayer times. Prayer doesn't work like that for me.
I know this is difficult! Not just for you, but for everyone. To get to that point of settled quietness when the background noise of anxiety, planning, interruption has finally receded. To stay at that point as sleepiness and boredom threaten to overcome. Simply in faith to wait to hear your Father speak. Yes, it is difficult.
But this is not just about you and your personal relationship with God, even though that is immensely important. How about this ...
You see we spend so much time worrying about how will we get young people, or children, or more people into our churches. We make the buildings attractive. We try to get our music uplifting. We try to get preachers who are not too old. We do all sorts of things. That's all well and good.
But it's not God's strategy! Why do we do those things, above the very thing that God says will fill our churches?
We find it in John 17?
God's objective, repeated twice, which will certainly result in full churches:
God's strategy, again repeated twice:
(This is not an organisational alliance, merger, nor agreement; this is the organic sharing of Holy Spirit life)
God's tactics:
[And what is the flaming glory in the church which makes the unity of believers visible?]
There it is. God's objective, strategy and plan is that we spend time in prayer, that we encounter the risen Jesus Christ in those moments, that we have a real two way relationship with God the Father, so that we experience his love and compassion for us.
That we are then filled with that selfsame love ...
A love for others which is obviously, clearly, demonstrably so much stronger, more responsive, more authentic, more sincere, more perceptive, more sacrificial than the average person in society.
And that difference marks us out and then prompts questions, and we are able to talk about having experienced and shared God's love.
You only need to find the time and the place and the quietness of mind. You may think that it doesn't work for you.
But understand that once you are waiting, listening, settled in that patient expectant prayerful mindset, what happens next is God's responsibility. Not yours. Hear this from:
If you commit yourself to sit or kneel quietly, make space in your day to look for Jesus, then you will find Him. He may not say anything. He may just want you to get used to the peace of sitting with Him.
Just being there with Jesus, will do you a power of good. And if anything needs to be communicated - that is God's responsibility to make sure you understand correctly. Because as Paul reminded the Christians in Corinth, the God who is shining into your heart is the one who said 'Let there be light'.
May we learn day by day how to sit with Jesus, and allow our Heavenly Father to reveal the face of Jesus Christ to us, so that we know and experience that love, joy, peace, gentleness, kindness which is the glory of God.
