Most of us are good at playing ‘Christian’. We go to church, smile and laugh with those around us; verbalize a few platitudes, nod in agreement about the ills of the world; we sing songs, and even have a few favorites that bring us joy to sing; we may even give of our time and money.
But when we get home, reality sets in—we smile, but don’t have joy; we know what many of the catch verses are, but they’re not helpful; we know we should have peace, but we don’t; we may even read our Bibles searching for peace, and still can not find it. In fact, we’re just as miserable as any nonbeliever, maybe even moreso.
Why?
Maybe we are acting just as Jesus said: “These people draw near to Me with their mouth, and honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me” (Matthew 15:8, quoting Isaiah 29:13; NKJV).
Ouch, right?
Every word of Scripture is powerful, but in vain platitudes there is no power, just like the pharisees that Jesus was speaking about. Jesus also said: “You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me” (John 5:39; NKJV).
This is nothing new for Chrisitans, we’ve all heard these things. We know it’s about a personal relationship with Jesus, right? So what’s the point?
When was the last time we sat down, with our Bible, without distraction, in search of Jesus? Not searching for answers, for hope, for peace… but for Jesus. Not in a rush to get through our daily reading, not constantly glancing at our text messages or social media, but actually focused on that relationship with Jesus? If our friends and family ignored us, how long before we started feeling left out or kicked to the curb?
We need to reconnect with Jesus, personally. We need to get alone with our Bibles, ask Him to sit with us and show us who He is. Then just read through the Word, not skipping around, not searching for the things we want, but just faithfully read through a whole chapter. And not just the New Testament. We need to explore the Old Testament. The New Testament wasn’t even written when Jesus spoke about searching the Scriptures. Imagine what we could find!
That sounds great, but many of us are way too busy to do that! Stop, we all have a few minutes somewhere, we do. And in order to get those minutes, maybe we need to put our phones down or turn off the TV. Jesus knows how much we love social media, so He knows what a sacrifice it would be to set our phones down and spend some time with Him.
After a while of faithfully reading our Bibles, we may find that we enjoy spending that time with Him more than any other time in the day! We may find the answers we’re searching for, we may find peace; we may find hope and joy. And we may just find a God we didn’t know, a Savior we’ve dreamed about, and a friend for all time.
Trust in the grace of Jesus, and “just stand up.”