Left Alone

 And the crowd began pleading with Jesus to go away and leave them alone....Mark 5:17

Since the Garden, humankind has spent far more time rejecting Him than coming to Him. After their disobedience, Adam and Eve sought to hide from Him. It has so often been our first response since. When He displayed His glory before His people Israel in the wilderness, they withdrew from His Presence, and begged Moses to be their representative to Him so that they would not have to come close. In the scripture from Mark, Jesus has just delivered a man possessed by so many demons that his name was Legion, "for there are many of us in him." He then sent them into a herd of nearby pigs, which promptly ran, en masse, over a cliff and drowned. The people from the nearby town were so terrified that they came out and asked Him, begged Him, to leave. To leave them alone. How tragic that we, the object of His love, spend so much of our lives running and hiding from Him. Even to the point of asking Him, demanding of Him that he "leave us alone." This is at least somewhat understandable in the case of an unbeliever. In our fallen state, a holy God terrifies us. But we who profess to love and follow Him, can so easily do all this as well. Where might we be doing it right now?

One of the sad truths that I've observed is that so many of His followers have somehow already determined just how far, and how deep thay are going to go with and in Jesus Christ. They are willing to give, go, and serve....up to a point. They want to grow in their relationship with Him.....to a degree. They want to identify with Him, but not so much that they are set apart from the culture they live in so as to be thought of as "fanatics." They welcome Jesus as Healer, Deliverer, Savior and Friend, but not a friend who intrudes too deeply upon and into their lives. As Chris Tiegreen puts it, "The question we must all consider is how much intensity we will accept in our relationship with God?" He is intensely passionate about us, expecting entrance, full entrance, into every area of our lives. He has no interest in shallow relationships. He is a "no holds barred Lord," and that can be, is, uncomfortable in the extreme for so many. So...we run...we hide, and yes, when He gets too close, we even ask Him to leave us alone. Where are we doing that right now?

Someone said that He "picks on things" in our lives in order to bring them to the surface and deal with them. Rather than submit to this, we seek ways to avoid Him, hide from Him. When this proves impossible, and it always will, we end up, in many ways, telling Him to leave us alone. When we do, He'll honor the request, but destruction is always the sure result. Those things He picks on are all "infections" that have the power to grow to such an intensity that they can, and almost certainly will, "bring us down." He's willing to be very intense indeed in order to save us from that.

What things has He been picking on in your life? Not in an accusing, condemning way, but with His still small and persistent voice. What has been lurking in the darkness that He seeks to bring into the light? What wounds are festering, attitudes harming, habits and addictions crippling and killing? Over what do we continue to tell ourselves, "It's not that bad," and so withdraw a little further from Him? Where have we gotten so weary of it all that we've simply asked Him to leave? In what part of parts of our lives, have we evicted Jesus?

The Holy Spirit passionately pursues us. Such is the depth of His desire for us. Yet He will not violate our wishes. If we, with our words and actions continue to demand He back off, that He leave us alone, He will. In the end, it will be to our eternal sorrow that He has done just that....left us alone.

Blessings,

Pastor O