Come Follow Me

This morning I am being focused on having a relationship with the Lord. The verse that popped into my mind is Matthew 4:19 NIV: “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.” I think that often we think this invitation was special for the apostles, the invitation to follow Jesus and learn from Him and be in relationship with Him. As I have been reading the Gospels I have noticed that Jesus gave this same invitation to many other people, sometimes to whole groups, other times to individuals, like here where He is addressing Peter and Andrew.

The reality is that this is the same invitation we are all given, to be in relationship with Jesus. The original Greek could be translated "come away to me" and I think this is the piece that most of us miss. The invitation that was extended by Jesus was to daily personal interaction, and learning to think and look at things differently. That same invitation is extended to all of us. If we will allow ourselves the time and attention to the Lord, He will interact with us daily.

Last night I was talking with two good friends about the many people that we know who have lost interest in church. As I reflect in that conversation, I think the issue is really lack of relationship to the Lord. So many of us attend church but never really get to the point of having anything more than a casual Sunday relationship with Jesus, and even that is often times third-person, as we relate to the Lord through our priest or pastor. The invitation that Jesus extended and still extends is to personal, daily relationship. Like all relationships, this relationship requires regular communication and interaction.

The Gospels also talk of the many people that followed Jesus for a season (Matt 14:13-21) but then either lost interest, didn't like something they heard (John 6:66), or were too focused on other things to enter into that deeper relationship (Matt 19:16-23). At the end of it all, after He was crucified, and rose and ascended, there remained 120 who gathered in the upper room (Acts 1:15), these represent those whose faith and belief ran deep, and, I think, those that had a deep personal relationship with the Lord.

So, the big question is how to establish a real relationship with Jesus? If we look at any in depth relationship, they all have the same components, time and interaction and communication, one on one. It is the same with Jesus. Call it what you want - prayer, quiet time, meditation - but having a relationship with Jesus requires that we spend time with Him. Many struggle with finding time in their days to talk with their spouse or significant other, so how to find time to spend with the Lord?

I started about 40 years ago, taking a few minutes every day to read my Bible. Over time I learned to hear His voice, speaking through scripture, and directly to my spirit, but it all started by committing to a few minutes every day. Now days its more like 2 1/2 hours, but that is not because I had tons of time were I was doing nothing, but because I continued to desire more and more time in relationship with Him, and made it a priority. For me, mornings work best, before my family gets up for the day and I am distracted by work, etc.

So, I guess my encouragement today is to continue to pursue relationship with Jesus. I am encouraged in my relationship by people like Graham Cooke, who has the most amazing personal relationship with the Lord. He can tell when the Lord is speaking to him about himself, by how the Lord addresses him. When its just about himself, the Lord calls him Gray. When the Lord is talking to him about others, or the church He calls him Graham. That level of intimacy is what I want. I want to know how the Lord speaks to me when He is addressing me affectionately. I want to know the difference in His voice, in how He addresses me, just like I know these things as they relate to my sweetheart, so also can I know them about the Lord.

My prayer for you is that you also will choose to follow Jesus, by taking time to "come away to Him", and that You will discover the treasure that is your relationship to Jesus.