Having Coffee With Jesus

**This is something I taught on at WinterFest, so I thought I'd share part of it with you all :-)

We all really do worship something and as Christians that is (and should be) God.  One way that we can spend time worshiping God is through our quiet times.  Spending time in God’s word, praying to and listening to Him.  Not only does God want us to worship Him, but He also wants to transform us in the process. So how does that happen? How do we continue to bring our identity under Christ’s Lordship to be transformed by him?  Well the best way to be transformed by Christ is to spend time with Christ.  Transformation happens best in relationship over task… transformation is more a process rather than project. You can compare task vs relationship to Shopping at a grocery store vs. chatting with a good friend over a cup of coffee.

Shopping, it is something we need to do to be fed and have what we need. It is important that we do it regularly so we don’t run out of what need.  However, it is very impersonal.  You get in and get out, it is 1 way focused (a means to an end). When you are shopping it really isn’t a place get to know someone and it isn’t a place you would expect to be transformed in.  The same is true for our quiet times.  It is something we need to do, to fill our spiritual thirst and hunger.  But if we treat it as a task we run the risk of only doing it for the sake of doing it.  We read the words but don’t really let them transform us.

On the other hand, having coffee with a friend is different.  It is a chance to slow down, to go deeper, be very personal, and get to know each other better. It is more 2 way, you share and they share. You are more likely to hear something new, be encouraged, or work through some hard issues.  You can be transformed in a relationship.  However, it takes time and intentionality on our part (remember a 2 way street).  And if we aren’t careful it can become routine and be taken for granted.

Spending time with God is something we need to do (like going to the grocery store).  But sometimes we can get in a rut and just go through the motions.  We take for granted the time we get to spend with Him and we might push it off until we realize it has been a few days… a week… a month since we’ve had a good chat with God.  It happens in all of our relationships.  You don’t intentionally do it but you let things get in the way.  We let others take priority and try to fit God into what’s left, and the thing is when we do that God doesn’t really have the space to fit in.  When that happens with God it is because we start to worship other things like time, work, relationships, etc…

And when that happens  and we notice what we are doing we might feel ashamed or guilty or fearful or maybe just leave the relationship alone because we know we’ve neglected it and aren’t sure what to expect now.  We realize we have been putting our best friend off, canceling our plans with Him, and it makes sense that we would feel shame and guilt. But when that happens God doesn’t want us to think the relationship is done and over, God just wants us to come back to Him and pick up where we left off.  He wants to still spend time with you like any best friend would.  Once we remember who we should be worshiping we need to return to Him.  He’ll welcome you back with open arms and want you to continue to grow in your relationship. So often we don’t treat quiet times like a relationship though, we treat it more like a trip to the grocery store to get the bare essentials to survive. Quiet times can be more than just a task on our spiritual to do list though.

God doesn’t want us to just survive on our quiet times, He wants us to thrive in the.  It can move from something we need to do, to something we want to do.  Just think about that for a moment… What if your quiet time was something that you wanted to do? Not for the sake of doing it but because you are so in love this God that loves you more than you can image. Think of how your life could change if you not only wanted to satisfy your spiritual appetite but valued the relationship it was.  Quiet times can be a place where we can be growing in our relationship with God, like we would with a best friend catching up over coffee. And just like we are eager to hangout with that best friend, we can be that eager to spend time with God.  To grow in our relationship with Him. And when our relationship with God grows, we are transformed in the process (we get to know more about God AND about who we are, who He created us to be, our true identity).  Just like in John 4, after the women spent time with Jesus she was transformed by it.  She was not the same after her encounter with Christ.  Not only was her thirst filled, she was so passionate about the experience she had to invite others into this transformative relationship.  Her passion for Christ was so overwhelming that she left what she thought she needed behind, she left her water jug at the well, to pursue her relationship with Christ further.  And our quiet times can do the same for us. So take some time to slow down, pull out your Bible, grab a cup of Joe, and have some coffee with Jesus.