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Slow Down: Don’t Miss Him
Slow Down: Don’t Miss Him
Good morning. I hope all of you are doing well. Last week we ended our series on the Mission of the Bridge. One of the challenges of finishing a sermon series is always where is the next series going to go. That was one of the challenges I have been facing the last couple weeks. I have a few ideas on what i want to do but nothings was just creating that moment of that is is. That key things i look for when working on a sermon. That essential element of the Leading of the Holy Spirit.
I went from idea to idea. All of them good. All of them have their place and i think will be used but nothing was just right for this week. THen the Spirit led and i was able to find something that resonated with my heard and spoke to me as a word that we needed to hear.
He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.
A Prayer…to Slow Down and See
A Prayer…to Slow Down and See
I was doing my daily devotional when this passage and a prayer entered my week. It was something that resonated with me personally and a message that we all need to be reminded of.
This opening chapter of John is a beautiful image and passage about how Jesus entered into this world. IT is one that is often looked to and used for a variety of theological and practical application of the scriptures into our lives. It is a passage that pushes to see Jesus in a unique light as the Word of God. It forces us to recognize how special he was beyond the typical birth story that we all know and love from the other gospels. IT shows us the connections to God and how Jesus was more than just another child or man born into this world.
This passage though spoke deeply to me and the prayer that came with it also was powerful.
Gracious Father, I am caught in the busyness of everyday life, and it is easy to miss what you are doing in my life today. Slow me down and open my eyes, Lord. make your presence known that I may behold you doing the impossible. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
I read that prayer and i stopped and I prayed it a second time, and then a third time, and a fourth time. I realized in that repetition that i needed it in my life. For those who don’t know my life has been very busy the last several weeks. Our local school district had elected to start school online for safety reasons, and this created problems for many parents in the area. Child care is always something difficult for many working parents to get lined up so that they can fulfill their obligations for work and then add in trying to get children educated at the same time it is difficult.
Opportunity presented itself and we were able to open up the church to welcome in a group of parents and their children to work together to provide a safe space for their kids while attempting to get them some education. Needless to say it made for a busy week. Then we went back to school starting this week and i started a part-time job at the schools working in the cafeteria to help with building more connections in the community and continue to impact the lives of the community. This created the challenges of figuring out a whole new schedule. It has been busy and challenging for awhile now.
This entire time it wasn’t that my devotional life or anything was suffering it. I didn’t feel like i was away from God or struggling with the way life was going it was just busy.
The Struggle of Keeping Up
The Struggle of Keeping Up
This had me thinking about what it is like for so many of us. We are moving often from one thing to the next. Sometimes life isn’t busy and we are able to be free to do what we want and it seems like in those moments we still fill our life with lots of different things to do. It is a part of our culture to have this drive.
We must remember to Slow down and Reflect
We must remember to Slow down and Reflect
Think about the scriptures we read a little while ago. There was a key line that just jumped out to me when we talk about our world and our lives.
He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him.
The world was unable to recognize Jesus for who he was. He came shining brightly and no one had any idea who he was. That is a serious problem. Humanity didn’t recognize the one sent by God.
The people of God were so distracted by the world around them and what was going on that they missed and at times rejected the one whom God sent. Many missed the boat but some did not. They heard the word and they believed. These people saw what was being presented and realized that Jesus was more than just another man. They received an amazing blessing because of their willingness to believe in Jesus.
Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God. The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
It is in recognizing who Jesus is that we gain adoption into the family of God. We become children of God and that is a significant gift. Think about it for a moment we now belong to the family of the creator of the universe. God has become our father. We can be confident in this idea as well because it is a theme through much of the rest of the New Testament.
For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God.
And, “I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.”
So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith,
This promise is powerful and fills my heart with joy because it helps us to come to realize that we have a God who cares deeply for us. It is in this that we need to remember that all the distractions and things of the world need to slip away and we focus ourselves on God.
We need to spend time Reflecting
We need to spend time Reflecting
This idea of reflection and slowing down it important not only for our relationship with God because it helps us to stay focused on him but it is also a good practice for the rest of our lives because it helps us to focus on the important things that we have going on in our lives right now.
Earlier this week i had a dream about my Dad that really bothered me. It was a strange dream that involved me needing to do a task to help make my Dad happy and have some joy in his life because we know that his days are counted. It is hard at times to deal with that and recognize that we have limited time with people we love.
When i woke from the dream i didn’t know why i had the dream. I didn’t know why it was so important that i remembered it but i strived to take it into my memory. I reflected on it and i knew it was important.
It wasn’t till i finally found this passage and this message that i realized why i had that dream. It reminded me of the importance of reflecting and slowing down to enjoy the time that we have. It was in this that i saw that it is when i take time to slow myself and think upon things that i see them clearly and realize the value of them.
I realize now that the value of that dream is it reminded me of how important the moments that i will have with my father are. Now i realize also that the moments that God starts speaking i must also take the time to think and listen and reflect so that i can hear the message that God wants to share with me. It is in this still moement this quiet this calmness despite the business of our day to day that we see that God is working and moving in our world and that our adoption is present and that we are his children and that he cares for us. So i want to close with the prayer from earlier one more time.
Gracious Father, I am caught in the busyness of everyday life, and it is easy to miss what you are doing in my life today. Slow me down and open my eyes, Lord. make your presence known that I may behold you doing the impossible. In Jesus’ name, Amen.