Inviting More of Jesus
Every Sunday we have a predictable pattern that we call response time. This time always seems to come and go so quickly, but those few minutes I spend reflecting and praying tend to yield a Kairos: an opportunity to be transformed by hearing God's voice and doing what He says. God will often times get my attention during the sermon, and then I try to really listen and discern what He might be saying.
As I listened to Kyle preach through his sermon, I was thinking to myself: "Jesus, you don't have anything to say?" I mean, typically, God almost always grabs my attention in a sermon, and I get eager about what He is trying to say! This time, however, I thought that maybe Jesus didn't have too much to say to me.
Kyle passionately "landed the plane," and Stephanie led response time. I thought to myself: "Well, just give the Lord your attention and see what happens." I felt like God was getting my attention with exactly what Kyle was highlighting in Isaiah 58:1-3:
"Shout it aloud, do not hold back.
Raise your voice like a trumpet.
Declare to my people their rebellion
and to the descendants of Jacob their sins.
For day after day they seek me out;
they seem eager to know my ways,
as if they were a nation that does what is right
and has not forsaken the commands of its God.
They ask me for just decisions
and seem eager for God to come near them.
‘Why have we fasted,’ they say,
‘and you have not seen it?
Why have we humbled ourselves,
and you have not noticed?’
I was sitting there listening to the sermon and wondering what Jesus had for me. I was so laser-focused on what wisdom He might share with me, what reminder He might give me, or what encouragement or affirmation He might have for me ... I was sort of caught off guard when I felt like Jesus was inviting me into something different. I felt like maybe He was inviting me to just really open my heart up to Him more.
Why do I, like Kyle, read-over the question that asks if I spend time with the poor? We all probably know that Scripture teaches us to love and shepherd the poor, but I still find myself ignoring that call.
I want to encourage you, as I was encouraged, to invite Jesus in a bit deeper. As Kyle mentioned on Sunday, "righteousness without blessing others isn't righteousness." I want to continue to press into my "upward" relationship with Jesus, my "inward" relationship with my spiritual family, and really cultivate the "outward" love Jesus exemplified for the least, the last and the lost in my own heart.
-Preston
Preston Michalski is married to Tessa, and they live in Niles with their dog Ponyo. They run Michalski Photo and Film, and Preston is the Director of Communications at Regen.
