Focus: Come Away! (Pt.3)

Text: Song of Sol.2:10

"Rise up my LOVE, my FAIR one, and come away."

"Rise up… and come away," Christ says to His love and fair one. If indeed you are Christ's love and fair one, then He requires of you to rise up and come away with Him. Christ desires that you share quality time with Him. Being with Christ is more important than being busy about Him.

You can't know Christ intimately from a distance, and to know Him deeply, you must step into the secret place of His presence. The heartbeat of Christ is felt from the place of proximity and intimacy. Christ says to His disciples, "Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest a while…" (Mk.6:3). Come away with Christ to the place of rest, revelation and realignment. Find a place to be alone with Christ, and don't forget that you are His love and fair one. 

Love charms and draws. Who doesn't love spending quality time with the one you love? Mark records that "he ordained twelve, that they should be WITH him, and that he might send them forth to preach" (Mk.6:3). Being with Him precedes being sent by Him. We need to withdraw from our world of activities to be with Him. 

We need to get away from needless distractions and vain fascinations, and get to appreciate the primacy of privacy with Christ.

Love demands that those who are in love spend time with each other. You serve a God who is intensely personal. He's passionate about having those He loves come to Him and love being in His presence. It is infinitely impactful being in His presence. Luke says that "when they saw the BOLDNESS of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marvelled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been WITH Jesus" (Act.4:13). Peter received and developed incredible boldness by being with Jesus Christ. 

We read of Moses that "when he came down from the mount, that Moses wist not that the skin of his face shone while he talked with him" (Ex.34:29). Moses spent 40 days and nights with God on the Mount, and as a result of it, his face glowed with glory. Similarly, Jesus' clothes were laundered and sparkled with glory - the glory of His inner self and the glory from heaven merged in Him. Luke reports that when Peter, James and John woke up from sleep, "they saw his glory" (Lk.9:32).

Beloved of God, rise up and come away to where you will see the glory of God, know His purpose and experience the depth of His love.

by Bishop Moses E. Peter