Captivated

CAPTIVATED by Jesus

The word captivated has been going around and around in my head this week. I talked about it in a short devotion at Connect Group this morning and I though I’d share it with you too.

You’re welcome.

So what does captivated mean and how can we relate this to our relationship with Jesus?

I looked up captivated and it means: strongly attracted, filled with wonder and delight. 

I read that and immediately thought of Todd… and that first time he smiled at me and spoke to me… ahhhhhh, my heart pounded…. And yes, I was filled with wonder and delight and awe. I wanted more… I wanted to see him and talk to Him ALL the time.  I watched Him, I couldn’t take my eyes of him, I couldn’t get enough of him. (I still cant) I was well and truly in love, I WAS CAPTIVATED!!  (Still am)

And do you know what… Jesus wants us to be captivated with HIM! He wants us to be filled with wonder, delight and awe when we talk to Him, and think about Him. He wants us to share secrets with Him and long to hang out with Him. He wants us to love him with everything we have. The question is Do we?? We say we love Jesus, but are really captivated?

The Author John Piper in his book, God Is the Gospel, essentially asks the question are we really in love with God? He writes:

The critical question for our generation- and for every generation is this: If you could have heaven, with no sickness, and with all your friends you ever had on earth, and all the food you ever liked, and all the leisure activities you ever enjoyed, and all the natural beauties you ever saw, all the physical pleasures you ever tasted, and no human conflict or any natural disasters, could you be satisfied with heaven, if Christ was not there?

Challenging thought hey?  If we are deeply in love with God we could never be satisfied in a heaven without Christ.

There often seems to be a discrepancy between how we feel about God and how we know we are meant to feel.  Are the words of Psalm 63: 1-5 a reflection of how we feel most days? 

O God, you are my God: I earnestly search for you.

My Soul thirsts for you, my whole body longs for you

in this parched and weary land where there is no water.

I have seen you in the sanctuary, and gazed upon Your power and glory.

Your unfailing love is better than life itself; how I praise You. 

^{I will praise You as long as I live, lifting up my hands to you in prayer.} 

^{You satisfy me more than the richest feast. I will praise you with songs of joy.}

I can honestly say that I don’t feel like that every day! Some days I do! But not everyday… Can anyone else relate?

The world we live in is CRAZY, it’s non stop!

People are in a HURRY! Rushing here and rushing there.

People seriously don’t have time to STOP and THINK!

Society distracts us; we are swallowed by the culture we live in.

When Jesus was on earth he was active and passive. He knew how to STOP and be in God’s presence. I strongly believe that the key for us to to be captivated by Christ is to, like Jesus, stop and slow down to spend time with God. To dwell in His Presence.

We need to find the balance between activity and contemplation.

Stopping to spend time with God is more than just a chore we do so we can tick it off the to do list. It’s more that just an information gaining devotion, it’s a time that we PAUSE FOR HIM. We need to stop and seek Him.  

Seek can be defined as: an attempt to find something. To try and find or discover by searching or questioning…

It is our responsibility to stop and seek God, to search Him, question Him, to know Him intimately, to discover more and more about Him, there is always more to discover. Let him work on changing us, from the inside out.  He says draw near to Him and he will draw near to you.  As we do this our relationship changes, we discover that we want to spend time with Him because we love him and NEED him, and because we are captivated by HIM! It’s a beautiful thing.

 Delight in Him.

Rest in Him.

Meditate on Him.

You know, God longs for this time and relationship with you.  In Zephaniah 3:17 it says: For the LORD your God is living among you. He is a mighty savior. He will take delight in you with gladness. With his love, he will calm all your fears. He will rejoice over you with joyful songs.  

I love that! He takes delight in me, He will calm my fears, He will rejoice over me with songs! This is God we are talking about- the creator! He really wants this VERY PERSONAL relationship with me, with us… WOW! I mean, this is seriously WOW!

When I die I want people to say: That Bec, she REALLY loved Jesus.

I don’t want to just say that I love Jesus, and not have the feelings to match.  I want to be whole-heatedly captivated by Him!

I’m going to make time in the day to spend time with Jesus, my lover! To seek His face, to know Him intimately.

Like Psalm 63, I want to be able to honestly say, My soul thirsts for you, my whole body longs for you. I want to be totally abandoned to Him.

David said in Psalm 92:2- It is good to proclaim Your unfailing love in the morning, Your faithfulness in the evening.

In Psalm 55: 17 it says, “Morning, Noon and Night I cry out to you, and You hear my voice.

If we are captivated, then we don’t want to just switch God on, once a day, then switch Him back off, we want Him near all day. Keep the conversation going with Him. Talk to Him about everything.  He wants to be involved in your life, every moment of the day…

Lets make the decision to stop and take time to seek God, to Know Him, to be filled with wonder and delight-  to be (said with awe) totally CAPTIVATED!