An Encounter With JesusНамуна

Day 1: A Unique Relationship

Friend, when God saved us, He had a better plan in mind than just us obeying all His rules and keeping all His regulations. He didn’t call us to be a bunch of perfectly obedient robots, but to take part in a divine relationship, a divine communion with Him.

What’s important for us to understand is that we need that relationship. God lets us choose whether we will take it or not, because He doesn’t want to force us, but nothing else we can find will be able to replace it. You may know people who have searched for this experience in other things, like drugs, alcohol, illicit sex, riches, or power. They all want an experience, but all the things they try are just shadows compared to having an encounter and relationship with Jesus, our Lord and Savior, Creator of the Universe.

The Bible tells us that anyone who is born again is of one Spirit with Him. We don’t have to work to get to God, because He already lives inside of us! God is inside of us in the person of the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Godhead, and it should be normal for us to have an encounter with Him. He wants to give us that relationship and encounter us in a deeply personal way, not because He needs anything from us, but because He loves us and wants us to be near Him.

It is a wonderful opportunity that we have, friend, to have an encounter with Jesus every day of our lives, but we must never lose sight of what a powerful experience that should be. When you have a personal, one-on-one encounter with Jesus, your life can never be the same. This experience isn’t just something you should think about like, “Oh, that might be nice.” No! You should desire this encounter and chase after it in your heart!

Over the course of this reading plan, I want to show you the stories of people who had their one-on-one encounters with Jesus, and you are going to see that they truly encountered the Lord and reacted in the only way they could: absolute desire and dedication.

For Your Consideration

• What comes to mind when you think about an encounter with Jesus? Do you believe this is something that is meant for you, or do you struggle to believe that?
• What are some ways that you might be trying to replace the experience of an encounter with Jesus right now? Take a moment to admit those things to God.