If I were to become one of your friends, then I would need to make sure I spent time with you. I would ask you questions and I would answer your questions. I would find out about your background, your family and your experiences. I would want to know your thoughts, your hopes, your dreams and I would share mine with you! I wouldn’t spend time with you because I have to, but I would spend time with you because I want to. That is what friendship is all about. The same is true with the Lord. In order to really know him, we need to spend time with him, but we don’t spend time with him as a duty, rather we linger in his presence because spending time with him is so pleasurable! If your time with God is not a pleasure, then dare I suggest that perhaps you have never really known him? To know him and to walk with him means that similar to the disciples on the road to Emmaus, our hearts will burn within us with excitement and immense joy.
When Jesus spoke with the woman at the well, he told her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water”. It’s living water he wants to give us, not old, stale, stagnant, boring water. It’s joy everlasting! He wants to give us pleasures forevermore. If we really know Jesus and the pleasures he can give us, then we would be running into his presence! Oh we so need to know him in this way! The more we get to know Jesus, the more we realise he is not like the picture sometimes painted of him. He is not an angry God ready to hit you over the head with a big black Bible every time you do something wrong! He is indeed the God of joy and pleasure and therefore it is fun, exciting and such an adventure to share our lives with him.
Psalm 16:11 says, ‘In your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore’. Come on – let’s be a pleasure seeker! Let’s hang around the source of all joy and let his wonderful fragrance fill our lives. There is such joy in knowing Jesus but that’s not to say that every day is a laugh a minute; sometimes life can be very hard and difficult as we all know especially in this last year, however, even in those difficult times because Jesus is with us we can find real joy in his presence!
A number of years ago, I made a conscious decision to get up even earlier in the morning to spend more quality time with the Lord. I was on holiday and so before anyone else was awake, I went and sat at the pool and read my Bible. No one else was there but as I sat reading and praying the presence of God would come down upon me! Two hours later, I had to drag myself away to go to breakfast with the others; my time with Jesus seemed far too short. My heart was filled so full that I was ready to explode with joy and delight! That’s our Jesus – why not get to know him today?
