What’s Holding You Back from Jesus?

“I assure you: An hour is coming and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.” John 5: 25

In my little morning routine, where I read scripture, write, and pray, I’ve been making my way through the gospel of John. To orient you to context of the verse above, Jesus is in the temple complex after healing a paralytic and claims God is His father, “making Himself equal with God.”

The word that stuck with me after reading and underlining this verse was “dead.” Jesus is speaking about spiritually dead people, like the Jewish leadership of the ancient world, who focus their attention on the legalistic rituals of religion, rather than the relational.

Power became their religion. Power became their god. Members of the Sanhedrin and the Pharisees held the majority of the power over the Jewish people by enacting legalistic laws based on their religion.

Jewish leadership of the ancient world could no more imagine a world where they were not in power, than they could a world where the Son of Man came to them as a babe in a manger, which is exactly what they got through Jesus.

I wonder how we are like those Jewish leaders, who held so tightly to the power they’d gained they could not recognize the Messiah. Are there things we do in our lives preventing us from seeing Jesus, from hearing His soft whispers of encouragement and feeling His gentle nudges of direction?

I’m sure all of us can agree we have that one thing, that one habit, quirk, or mild addiction we can’t seem to let go of, which prevents us from creating room for a rhythm leading us to walk with Jesus.

As much as I would like to tell you the pathway rhythms pave toward Jesus aren’t blocked by these things, I can’t. If something has a hold over you, it has the power to keep you from seeing Jesus in your life.

Let me give you an example from my life.

Last November I found a game on my phone called Cooking Craze. It’s fun and challenging and gives you a goal to work toward, which is, apparently, exactly what I like in a game.

You’re the chef in a kitchen with customers storming the doors, and it’s your job to cook the food and serve it to them. I loved the game so much I’ve continued to play it for almost a year now. It wasn’t a problem at first. I played it when I had the time.

But it’s slowly gained more control over my time than I recognized in the moment and became the thing I most wanted to do in the mornings. I know, I have a problem.

The point I want to make with my phone game example is this, I let this silly, little game on my phone become more important than spending time with the Lord. I held onto this game just like the Jewish leadership held onto their power over the people.

Granted, I never plotted to kill anyone who threatened to take the game away, but in my heart, the feeling was just the same as theirs. It put a roadblock in my path and made me wonder where Jesus had gone.

The rhythms we create in our lives are the avenues guiding us toward Jesus, not keeping us from Him.

Like feeling God in the cool breeze of a hot day or in the delicate, tiny fingers of a newborn, our rhythms make finding the Lord in the small moments of the day a little easier.

Sometimes, I think we genuinely forget that Jesus walks with us daily. He doesn’t leave the room when we’re crouched on hands and knees scrubbing hot chocolate out of the rug, or when our child leaves a particularly disgusting surprise for us in their diaper.

Jesus promised to be with us always, even to the end of the age, and I believe he meant always when He said it.

The thousands of small moments in our everyday easily divert our untethered attention toward the distraction, away from Jesus.

Take the first step toward Jesus by discerning the need to make room in your day-to-day for rhythms of life that speak to your soul, and to see the Almighty hand of God, who is ever present and everlasting.

Tune your heart and mind to God’s signal, ask Him to reveal Himself to you throughout the day and be prepared to see Him, but don’t be surprised when the answer comes in a way you didn’t expect.