Being Seen with Him
Hello, my friends!
When we look at the life of Jesus on this earth, particularly in His ministry years, He spent time with specific types of people. He was interested in the downcast, the downtrodden. He was interested in the poor and the prostitutes. He was interested in anyone who was lost to the brokenness of this world but withstood all who were proud, often confronting them.
This scripture we find in Psalm 37:11, and also mentioned in Matthew 5:5, has always given me comfort: “But the meek shall inherit the earth, and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.” In recent years, since coming out of religion and into a faith in the grace of God, I have seen this to be more apparent than ever. Jesus is all about the meek, the underdog. He calls all that are His to Himself and pours out His Spirit upon them. Jesus delighted in being seen with the most unwanted human being on earth, the most dishevelled, the neediest, those that needed Him. Those that thought they didn't were mostly peripheral onlookers and naysayers.
The church is quite the mystery to me. Although there is only one church and we all are the body of Christ, there are so many different brands of Christianity with differing theologies, all calling out the others in a way for their misguided direction. Well, I suppose I fit that criteria well. My intention is not to create division but to present what I believe as the true gospel, which opposes those presenting their version of what they believe as the true gospel.
For me, the simpler the gospel message is, the more likely it's the truth. He did the work, and we live out of that work; it's pretty simple, really. The reason the gospel suits the meek is that, in regard to moving forward in any way in life and having any sense of peace and rest, you live by the motto, “You can't, but He can.” A life devoid of His absolute leading and absolute empowerment is a delusional wander through life with no payoff at the end, either because of no regeneration through unbelief or living out of self-works and bursting into heaven as though through flames.
When I first fell in love with Jesus, I would look at the world and see how backward and topsy-turvy it was. But many years later, when I had a revelation of grace, I realised how topsy-turvy the modern-day church was, with its bravado, its pursuit of buildings, possessions, prosperity, “blab it and grab it” delusions, and merit-based anticipations of God’s blessings, especially the whole tithing farce, where you pay God for favour. Oh my gosh, how imprisoning is that doctrine! Not to mention starving yourself to get God to be a better God to you. I'm more of a feaster, feasting on His wonderful love and grace for me, a love and grace I didn't earn but was His delightful gift to me.
Paul writes that we should aspire to lead a quiet life, and John writes that He must increase, but I must decrease. My friends will know that my objective is to aim for the ground, aim low, fly under the radar, and do the quiet will of God, and only allow increase if the Spirit leads, if it’s a requirement of the office I hold and the work that entails, but gently and quietly for the most part, with bits of pushback here and there when required. Being meek doesn’t mean being a wimp or living under a rock.
Just as Jesus was all about being seen with His beloved, the broken and the poor, He seeks after you, to not only be within you as a new creation via the Holy Spirit but to be seen with you as you pray, as you meditate and mine and dig through His word, as you have communion with Him, as you stop and take a breath with Him, take a stroll with Him, sit and ponder Him, and worship Him, just being seen with Him as He was and is willing to be seen with you. There isn't one person with an open heart on earth that Jesus isn't 100% willing to be seen with. He wants to be seen with you every minute of every day, and He never gets bored of you or upset with your shortcomings or how you transgress here and there. You are His beloved, and He always has abundant time to spend with you, especially in those quiet moments of the day when it is just you and Him, with no distractions, when the interference of the world is kept at bay for a moment or a period so you can marinate in His presence and let His love drip all over you.
Being seen with Jesus is the most important time of your day, the most important encounter you will ever experience. Being seen with Jesus is where your relationship with Him grows, where it blossoms, where you start to hear His voice and gain trust in that voice to guide you and embrace you and comfort you, each and every day.
You know Jesus is the King of kings, and everything on earth is under His feet. So, if your life is busy, too busy, bring it before the Lord, and tell Him, “I want to seek first the kingdom. I want to spend time with you. Help me to prioritise, help me to slow down, help me to have less on my plate, help me to fall in love with You and fall in love with just sitting with You and having real conversations with You and hearing real words from You.”
Jesus isn’t ashamed of you. He took your shame at the cross so that you could come boldly before the throne of grace and make your requests known. God is sovereign; we don’t understand His higher ways. We don’t understand how His blessing upon His saints on earth looks disproportionate through our earthly understanding, through our earthly logic, but He is just so for us and is never against us. He is compelled by His crazy love for us to lean into our lives constantly and call us to His side in worship, in prayer, and in knowing that His love for us isn’t defined by what we do, but His love for us was defined by that beautiful exchange that happened at Calvary.
Be blessed today, my friends. Keep the faith, keep on coming back to the side of Jesus, and sitting with Him, being seen with Him as He is always willing to be seen with you, no matter the circumstances of your life, or what your behaviour looks like, or what your mental state is like, or what crazy situation you are in right now. Let the weight of His glory just envelop you today as you call upon His name and let Him love you exactly as He wishes to and always has wanted to. Embrace Him today, be seen with Him.
Phil