Jesus I Come: Elevation Worship

I am just coming out of a long season of busyness and I've come to realize that this busyness has been slowly robbing me of my deeper passions and longings of 1) growing in deeper intimacy with the Lord and 2) reaching out to the lost children of God. Now the good work that I have been busying myself with has been within the walls of the church which like I said is good work. But, each day I take in breath and walk in the world, what I am confronted with the reality that there is much more urgent good work to be done outside the walls of the church.

Now don't get me wrong, I love serving the local church and ministering to the found children of God. But, we are living in precarious times with so much pain and brokenness happening all around the world. Everywhere I go, the Holy Spirit highlights to me the loneliness and lostness of those around me and their desperate need for faith, hope and love. In the past months, I befriended a neighbor who has been battling depression for 30+ years. To hear his story of pain and suffering pulled at the strings of my heart. I prayed for him in that moment and invited him to come to church which was all the time and energy I had at the time. I know that I need to be Jesus to this man, but to pursue a deeper relationship with him will take time and energy which is a scarce commodity.

In the past few weeks, I've made the decision to intentionally slow down and begin seeking to be simply present with Jesus.This will mean clearing my schedule and saying no to the many expectations that others may place on me. A word that a very wise and insightful person spoke to me recently which has helped to bring some reorientation to my disorientation was: "People's expectations for us are often much higher than God's expectations." If I'm honest, in this last season of busyness I regretfully got tangled up in trying to live up to people's expectations, rather than checking to see what God's expectations were of me.

Thankfully, Jesus is faithful and has begun to break me out of this. I know that it will take some time to shake off all the baggage and poor habits that come along with living in busyness, but I know that the Holy Spirit is Almighty and that He is passionate about drawing all of God's children into the rest that Jesus extends to us: "Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light" (Matthew 11:28-30 NLT). If you are in a season of busyness, then receive Jesus' words with faith and know that this is His heart and will for you.

This is my prayer: Lord Jesus, I pray your words would come alive in me and whoever else needs them. In Your Name I pray Jesus. Amen.