My sister and I spent a lot of time with our paternal grandparents when we were children. Many Saturday nights found us spending the night at their home while our parents went out to dinner with friends. It was a Saturday night ritual that gave me wonderful memories of love and laughter.
Because of the time I spent with my grandparents, I had a window into their lives and faith. My Grandma, especially, had a deep and abiding faith in Jesus. It was not a faith that was easy-come, easy-go. No, she had seen some heartache and trouble in her life and had found Jesus to be faithfully present through it. As I circled around her life, I got the sense that Jesus was her best friend and that she really, really trusted Him. She spoke of Him in an easy, familiar way that caused me to wonder how exactly one would go about having Jesus as a best friend and confidante’. It would be a few decades before I would understand how to have with a full-on, intimate relationship with Jesus like that of my Grandma.
What about you?
Is Jesus your best friend?
Do you trust Him completely with your life…with the life of your family…with your money…with your health?
Do you tell Him everything?
Are you willing to fling open your arms and say “here I am….I am yours…do with me as you will, even if it hurts”?
Once you have asked Jesus to come into your heart and forgive you of your sins, then you will be able to journey with me into this post. But, if you have not yet done that, you will never have an intimate relationship with Him. If you want to know more about why I believe in Jesus and made Him my best friend, please see THIS POST.
Today in our time together I am seeking to take you to a deeper place of intimacy that comes after you have established that saving relationship with Christ. A place of complete trust in Him….more trust than you have ever placed in any human. A place of obedient surrender to His desires for your life.
You see, I’m convinced that an astounding number of Christians do not have that intimate, best-friend-in-the-entire-world relationship with Jesus. They have a saving relationship with Him, but that is where it stops, and that is precisely where I was about 20 years ago. I had asked Jesus to come into my heart, forgive me of my sins, and one day when I died, take me to live with Him in heaven. But, I did not have an intimate friendship with Him and I wanted one. I wanted that deep, abiding trust in Christ that my Grandma had.
And I finally figured out how to get it.
Please do not misunderstand me. I do not have it all figured out when it comes to the Christian life. God teaches me something new almost every day. He points out things in my life that need to go and be replaced with His things. There are still many days that I am painfully aware of my lack of success at this Jesus-walk.
The results of my recent survey told me that women are struggling, y’all. Probably men, too, but my heart is women. We are struggling in our marriages, our jobs, our parenting, our choices, and in our view of who we are in Jesus. I believe that I have learned some things that Jesus would like for me to share with a few somebodies who are desperate to know Him better. A few women who want like crazy to experience Jesus as their very-best friend.
About six months ago the Lord began tugging on my heart-strings with the idea of an intimate retreat for women where the focus is spending time with Jesus in worship, prayer, Bible study, and quiet time. At first I resisted thinking I had little to offer, but God would not give up. As I prayed into the idea, He confirmed what I sensing in my heart. He began giving me plans for the retreat….a name for it, a location, the dates, and the Scriptures that would be taught.
And so today, I am sharing a few details with you. Not everything. Not yet.
I am calling the retreat “Come Away……2017”. The name is taken from Mark 6:31 where Jesus invites His disciples to come away with him and find rest. My prayer and my hope is that a handful of women will so desire a deeper relationship with Jesus that they will say ‘yes’ to His invitation to “Come Away” September 15-17. In the coming weeks I will share more about the retreat, but in the meantime, if you desire a more tender and intimate relationship with Christ, would you begin to pray about attending ‘Come Away….2017’?
Jesus longs to meet you there.
TA-DA! Since you are reading this post a week or so after it went live, I have now posted more details about the retreat. Go HERE to find out the retreat schedule, location, registration and all that jazz.
SDG/FCA!!
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