Our church ladies attend a ladies’ retreat each spring, and one thing I always look forward to is the time to fellowship both as we travel and as we have free time at the retreat. At this year’s retreat, one friend and I not only had the hours together in the car, but we also stayed up talking until the early morning hours. When I told my husband how many hours my friend and I had talked, he commented that we must have run out of things to talk about. He was optimistic that we wouldn’t be among the last to leave church the next day, but my friend and I still took a few minutes to chat.
As I thought about how helpful and encouraging and needed our time of fellowship was and how much I enjoyed it, I began comparing that to how I spend time with my Savior. If He is my dearest Friend, I should be even more eager to listen to Him and to talk with Him than I am with a friend here on earth.
Zacchaeus exhibited great eagerness just to see Jesus, never expecting that Jesus would come to his house. Luke 19:3-4 tells us that Zacchaeus was “seeking to see who Jesus was” and that he “ran on ahead” of the crowd he could not see over and took the extreme measure of climbing a tree. All of that, just to catch a glimpse of Jesus.
Can you imagine being Zacchaeus in that sycamore, seeing Jesus look up at you and call your name? And then hearing the inconceivable command and invitation: “Hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today”? We’re told that Zacchaeus “hurried and came down and received Him joyfully.” I picture Zacchaeus scraping his hands and legs against the tree in his hurry to get down, brushing off bark chips and leaves when he reaches the ground.
James 4:8 encourages and commands us to “draw near to God” but includes the promise that “He will draw near to you.” We don’t have to wonder if God has time to talk with us or if, as Elijah told the worshipers of Baal, our God might be asleep or away on a trip and unavailable.
Perhaps like I have, you memorized Micah 6:8—”He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” The word require means to seek after, to desire. God desires that we walk with Him—not just that we live obediently to Him, but that we are with Him. What a privilege!
The words of David in Psalm 16 sum up these thoughts perfectly.
“I have set the Lord always before me;
Because He is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken.
Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices;
My flesh also dwells secure.
You make known to me the path of life;
In Your presence there is fullness of joy;
At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”
(Psalm 16:8-9, 11)
Ever since that retreat, I’ve been trying to remember to think of my time with Jesus in the way that I looked forward to time with my friends. He’s waiting for me, and I don’t have to wait for an annual retreat to spend time with Him. He’s always right beside me, offering me “pleasures forevermore.”