Do you use Siri to speak text for you when you’re driving or in a hurry? You don’t have an extra second to stop and type what you want to say so instead you say “Hey Siri can you send a text for me?” I do this all the time. I’m so excited as I tell Siri the good news I want her to share. Capital letters and tons of punctuation filled with passion and emotion. Then Siri reads back what I said. I’m pretty sure in the background there is the old “dun, dun , dun” sound playing when a contestant on a game show looses. Because Siri sucked the life out of my paragraph. No emotion, no passion and definitely no caps or punctuation. She even pauses in the wrong place. I know she didn’t stop to breathe so why the pause Siri?
The other day I was trying to read a chapter in 2 Kings. I read the same few verses over and over for 10 minutes. Finally I stopped because I had read the scripture so many times and still didn’t know one thing I read. I was being distracted by my own thoughts and other things happening around me. The plan was to sit quietly in the presence of Jesus soaking in what word He had for me this day. My life was so busy, loud and chaotic that I wasn’t accomplishing anything.
As I thought about this moment later on in the afternoon I wondered if Jesus was as frustrated with me as I was with Siri? Would He agree that my spiritual life was similar to the way Siri delivered my texts? No passion or emotions just plain blah!
Then it hit me like a ton of bricks. My relationship with Jesus in this moment was lacking. Jesus loves me so much that He gave His life for me and I wasn’t able to give Him 15 minutes of time sitting in His presence listening to His voice?
“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?” Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ “This is the first and greatest command. Matthew 22:36-38
Above all things Jesus said “Love the LORD your God with all your heart, soul and mind. With everything in me Love the Lord. And here I am not able to even listen or soak up what He is trying to tell me. How can I ever stand before man and talk about the love of Jesus when I can’t even sit in His presence for a few minutes. I felt so deflated and discouraged. The sad and embarrassing fact is this isn’t the first time I’ve been here.
The good news is Jesus Loves me and forgives me when I don’t give Him the attention He deserves. Our relationship is based on love and not works. Then He pulls me in closer to Him as He so sweetly whispers to my heart.
Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. James 4:8a
You just call out to Jesus and He draws you up close to Him. Oh how I Love Jesus! Just need a gentle reminder from time to time to take my mind off myself and this world and onto who He is.
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