Living Life Close to Jesus

When the disciples return from a missionary journey on which the Lord has sent them, the apostles gathered around Jesus and told Him everything they had done and what they had taught.

It is important that we see this element: when they had done what the Lord commanded them to do, they had had wonderful experiences, God had performed miracles through them, they had proclaimed the Gospel to the surrounding villages and towns, they had seen demons come out of demon-possessed people, and they had had various very powerful ministry experiences, they returned from those days or perhaps weeks that they had spent out there, and the first thing they did was go back to where Jesus was.

And then it says that they told Him everything they had learned and what they had done, and then the passage continues. I have always seen something important here, and it is that we must live, interpret, and share the experiences we have in life with the Lord Jesus Christ through prayer and meditation. What gives meaning to our life is precisely that ongoing dialogue we have with God.

In our ministry life, in the things we do, we must always stay close to Jesus, remain near Him. They go out from Jesus because the Lord sends them with a commission and training, an endowment of power that He gives them, and a message that He sends them to preach. But then, when they finish, they return to Jesus and share with Him so that He may interpret for them what has happened, give them counsel, and enrich them through what they have experienced.

How important it is for us to live life this way, close to Jesus. When we begin the day or undertake any ministry endeavor, we must go to Him to receive from Him the training, power, grace, and wisdom. If we are going to witness to someone, when we go out to work at the beginning of each day, we must stay close to Him; we must seek strength, vigor, and intelligence from Him. We must have that healthy sense of absolute dependence on the Lord. We must stay close to Him, knowing that without Him we can do nothing.

So we emanate from Him, we go out from Him, we begin our days by going out in His power, but then, when we finish, we must return to Him and be healed. Ministry life often exhausts us; as a pastor, I go through so many different situations that leave their mark on me in my own humanity and drain my energy, and I too need to go to the Father so that He may heal me, help me interpret the things I have experienced, and give me a healthy sense of dependence on Him.

Often, when we have done this or that, our tendency is perhaps to think, no, I am the source of all these things. We must remember that it is the power of God. And so we must recharge ourselves spiritually, recharge our spiritual batteries by returning to the Lord Jesus Christ and speaking with Him at the end of the day, after a day of work—returning to the Lord and asking Him for strength, vigor, healing, forgiveness, illumination, and renewed enthusiasm so that ministry life does not become something merely routine; we must stay close to Him.

That is why the Lord Jesus Christ says: Abide in Me, and I in you, and you will bear much fruit. He also says: for apart from Me you can do nothing. The believer’s relationship with Christ must be the relationship of the fruit to the branch, of the branch to the trunk, of the trunk to the root, and of the root to the soil. There is an element of intimacy, a relationship of total intimacy. We must cultivate that sense of total dependence, of total intimacy. Our life must be lived with that level of focus on Jesus Christ and complete attachment to Him, knowing that without Him we can do nothing.

At the end of the day, we will have to say: Lord, where shall we go if You alone have the words of eternal life? May the Lord grant that we always live that kind of life, going out from Jesus, abiding in Him, and returning to Him at the end of our days. God bless you. This is your brother in Christ, Pastor Roberto Miranda, speaking to you, and let us continue with these meditations.