I have been so inspired by this series we’ve been in now for two weeks. In my life as a Follower of Jesus, I’ve heard the crucifixion taught and even taught it myself. I’ve been in seminary where we walked through every moment. I’ve been to Easter pageants where the whole story was played out. I’ve seen The Passion of Christ and The Son of God. None of these have impacted me as deeply as this series on the seven last sayings of Jesus from the cross, and we’re only two weeks in. If you’ve missed either week, let me encourage you to watch or listen online.
I’ve been asking myself why this series is so moving to me, and I believe I have some insight. As I’ve mentioned before, last year when I drove across central Nevada, I clearly heard God speak to me about my prayer life. I was listening to a series of messages by Dallas Willard where he was talking about leadership. He talked about a book – Prayer: The Greatest Power On Earth. At that point, I heard God say, “Ron, you talk a lot more about Me than you talk to Me.”
What I realized is that God was so right. I did. At that point, I made it my goal to ratchet up my prayer life. Well, that has now spread out into my devotional times as well. I now find myself wanting to be with God by devouring His word. I now want to be with God in my message preparation, in my marriage, in my parenting, in my leading and in my friending.
Someone wrote a note to me after the first week of the series and said, “You told me one time that you speak every message as if it were your last one. Well, today, I really felt it.” Folks, the only thing that has changed in me is my willingness to carve out time to be with God in Bible reading, prayer, meditation, serving. I’m trying to practice the presence of God in every area of life.
I’m also asking Jesus to let me see Him so clearly that I’m enthralled with Him. Now for the rest of the story… I still fail, stumble, sin, make poor choices, miss times to pray or meditate on Scripture. The really cool thing is that I’m learning to embrace Jesus even in my failures. In doing that, I’m seeing Him in a fresh way
Longing to be totally enthralled with Jesus,
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