Although Jesus and God desperately want to be seen by you, Jesus warns us that we will not see Him except for certain conditions. Jesus is always there for us, always loving us, always seeking us, but if we do not see Him in that way there is a reason. He told the religious people of Jerusalem: “Behold, your house is forsaken. And I tell you, you will not see me until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!’(Luke 13:35)” If you are not seeing Jesus so far this season, maybe you need to think about Him and bless Him.
Even in Lent, I find it easy to miss seeing Jesus. Fasting in itself does not guarantee that I am seeing Jesus as I fast. Sometimes, I can even get a little annoyed that I must do something that is unnatural for me. I fast with a bad attitude. That kind of fasting will leave me desolate or “forsaken.” If my fast is not connected with blessing Jesus, it will not have spiritual fruit.
Fasting is a great spiritual lesson. It helps me tune into how much I do not bless Jesus in my day-to-day life. Too often I am worried about how other people are treating me rather than how I am blessing Jesus by my prayers, thoughts, and deeds.
My fast this season is to say the “Lord’s Prayer” every time I open my phone. I have a security code on my phone and sometimes even when I am changing an app, it will close, and I pray the Lord’s Prayer again. I can pray the Lord’s prayer very quickly. I get half-way through by the time I put in my security code, and I move to the first app while I am still finishing the prayer. I stop and think, is this truly blessing Jesus? I love this effort and I am getting so much out of repeating this prayer frequently even though I do it quickly. The benefits are many.
First, in the crazy season of our world, I am frequently reminded that my purpose is to focus on doing God’s will in my life. By this focus I don’t have to worry about how crazy the world is, I am reminded that God’s will is done in heaven, and it will be done on earth. I don’t have to worry about the things I cannot change. I need to focus on how I stay connected to His will in my personal life.
Secondly, I benefit from emphasizing how I forgive others and am daily reminded of the ones I do not forgive. It motivates me to focus on forgiving them as I am asking God to forgive me. In the early weeks of Lent, my focus on who I don’t forgive has moved to my daily interactions rather than the people that have hurt me in the past that I know need complete forgiveness from my entire heart.
I also benefit from waking up to the evil that satan is constantly trying to bring into my life. I become aware that I need God to deliver me from evil through praying the Lord’s prayer so frequently.
All of these are true benefits that I hope I will continue to receive after Lent. I want to continue this habit of praying the Lord’s prayer as I open my phone in the future.
Another benefit is to see how often I am not even thinking of Jesus, nevertheless, blessing Jesus as I pray this prayer so frequently throughout the day. If I am not blessing Jesus from the heart, how can I truly see Jesus?
