Dear Elim Grace,

Let’s be honest: It takes time to know Jesus. It doesn’t happen automatically.

Getting married to Alissa didn’t guarantee a relationship. To know and to be known would require time. 

But even the passing of time didn’t and couldn’t guarantee a deep relationship. It is both the passing of time and the giving of time that leads to knowing deeply.

In the same way, our relationship with Jesus is bound to/in time, both the passing and the giving of time. It takes time to know Jesus. Time in conversation and prayer. Time in Scripture and in worship. Time in waiting on Him and listening to His voice. Time in repentance. Time in obedience. 

You do not and cannot know Jesus if you are not willing to give Him time. Yet it need not be only the time set apart to do nothing else but pray or read or worship or listen. It’s also the time within time: the time while driving, while resting, while talking with friends, while expecting difficult news, while playing with your kids, while working, while planning ahead, while asking forgiveness, while…

Yes, knowing Jesus begins with giving Him time alone. With the passing of time, though, to know Him becomes a conscious living before Him. Always Him in your thoughts, always Him in your desires, always Him in your words, always Him in your actions. Always Him. 

It may sound strange to speak of a relationship with Jesus as both bound by space and time and yet NOT bound by space and time. Though in many ways she is “with me” and a part of me always, in other ways I’m only with Alissa when we’re face to face. Jesus has promised that He is with us always, even to the ends of the earth, even to the end of the age. Space and time are held together in Him. 

But Jesus is still a Person, both God and Man. In Him we “taste and see” of the goodness of God, we behold the perfect image and the radiance of the glory of God. “Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory” (1 Peter 1:8). With Jesus we can have a personal, “face to face” relationship. And like other persons in our life, it does and always will take time.  

Dear Elim Grace, let’s be honest: It takes time to know Jesus. Let’s give Him time today.

Pastor Jonathan