What I Learned on My Summer Vacation Part 2 (2003)
Tom Shrader draws on the example of Isaac Newton's need for solitude, Jesus sending His disciples to rest, and Jesus' own pattern of withdrawing to pray, to argue that every believer needs regular, quiet time alone with God and His Word. Using Philippians 3:8, he contrasts the world's notion of emptying the mind in meditation with the biblical call to progressively know Christ more deeply through Scripture. He closes with a challenge from James 3 and Psalm 46:10, calling the congregation to cultivate an intimate, vibrant relationship with God by committing to consistent, unhurried time in the Word.
“Intimacy with God is not reserved for a select group, but is within the grasp of every believer. There is no way to microwave intimacy with God — there is only one well-marked path, the Word of God.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: What I Learned on My Summer Vacation
Recorded: 2003 at East Valley Bible Church
Duration: 42 min
Themes: solitude, prayer, rest, knowing God, bible reading, quiet time, meditation, spiritual discipline, feeling spiritually dry, struggling with busyness, new believer, young adult, seeking deeper faith, overwhelmed by life, inconsistent in devotions, hungry for god
Scripture: Mark 6:7, Mark 6:13, Mark 6:30, Mark 6:33, Mark 6:45, Philippians 3:8, 1 Thessalonians 2:13, Psalm 119, Psalm 46:10, James 3:13-17
Theological Themes: sanctification, becoming holy, spiritual formation, scripture authority, progressive sanctification, knowing christ, biblical meditation, union with christ
Full Transcript
Introduction: A Harmony of the Gospels
I asked the elders if they would allow me to teach a harmony of the Gospels, and they said yes. So here is what we are going to do. We are going to take Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, arrange them as best we can chronologically — and there is always some dispute involved — and study right through them. We will be studying chapter by chapter, verse by verse, all four Gospels simultaneously.
That is different for me. My sense is it is going to take us longer than two months, so we may hang in at this for a while before moving back to something else. But I think it is genuinely important. We have spent a lot of time studying the doctrines that Paul primarily writes to us, and I think it is important that we not get away from the Gospels — especially the life of Christ. When we are done and all of these studies are arranged, you will have what should be a pretty complete study of the life of Christ as it comes from Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. We will start that next week. Be praying for me — I am really anticipating it, and I think it is something important for you, for me, and for us as a church.
What I Learned on My Summer Vacation, Part 2
Today is part two of "What I Learned on My Summer Vacation." Last week we took one point and worked it all the way through, and we are going to do the same thing this week.
While I was on vacation, I reacquainted myself with a book called *The 100*, which is a ranking of the most influential people who have ever lived. The top six go like this: Muhammad, Isaac Newton, Jesus, Buddha, Confucius, and Paul. Stop for a second and just look at that list. Try to set aside any combative or confrontational instincts. Don't try to decide what is appropriate — just look at the list.
As you look at it, there is something fairly interesting. The man who authored this book gives me no reason to believe he is advocating any sort of religious position. Yet of those six, five of them — Muhammad, Jesus, Buddha, Confucius, and Paul — all but Isaac Newton, have something to do with what we might call, in the broad sense, spiritual things. There are no politicians there, no economists, no business magnates. Sober analysis and study of history would say that those who have influenced the world most are those who have influenced how people think and who have addressed the great issues.
The great issues you and I face are issues of the soul. They are not political, not economic, not sociological — they are soul issues. Now, obviously, as we look at that list, Jesus jumps off of it. Muhammad cannot save you. Buddha will not save you. Confucius will not save you. Paul's writings will not save you. Jesus' death saves you. Having said all that, it is actually Isaac Newton we are going to talk about.
The Essential Role of Solitude
Here is a quote we looked at last week from a new book about Isaac Newton: *Solitude was the essential to his genius.* That powerful sentence captured my mind and my thought process and had me thinking and considering.
I do this frequently — I looked first at what it did not say. It did not say that solitude was important, or that it was significant, or that it was a contributing factor to his genius. It said solitude was *the essential* to his genius. My question was: if it is essential to his genius, is it important to our thinking, our lives, our process? And as we did last week, I do not want to have merely a secular discussion here. I want to ask whether the Scriptures can help us understand this.
Solitude in the Life of Jesus: Mark 6
Open your Bibles to Mark chapter 6. I want to emphasize the point that in Scripture we see solitude and quiet presented as important.
Mark chapter 6, verse 7: He — Jesus — summoned the twelve, and He began to send them out in pairs, and He was giving them authority over unclean spirits. He instructed them that they should take nothing for their journey except a staff — no bread, no bag, no money in their belt. They were to wear sandals and were not to put on two tunics. We could unpack and enrich all of that, but that is not what we are here for right now.
While they were out, verse 13 tells us they were casting out many demons, and they were anointing with oil many sick people, and they were healing them. That certainly opens up a whole discussion about casting out demons and anointing and all that goes with it, but we are not here for that either. What I want you to see is that Jesus sends them out and engages them in ministry — two by two, without a great bundle of resources. They go out, and things begin to happen. Ministry is taking place. There is action. God is moving in a great way.
They come back together in verse 30. The apostles gathered with Jesus, and they reported to Him all that they had done and all that they had taught. I am going to guess there was a lot to talk about. "You wouldn't believe it — here we were, and there was this man, and there was this demon, and we said 'come out,' and the demon was gone. And here was this man, he couldn't even move, he couldn't even walk, and in Jesus' name he was healed." They were talking about all the things they had done and all the things they had taught. Ministry was happening everywhere.
Have you ever been in one of those situations where you are talking to somebody, and perhaps for the very first time in their life they have seen God work in a recognizable, identifiable way, and they come back to tell you about it?
Solitude in the Midst of Busyness
Ministry is a little bit like the old Lay's potato chip — you can't eat just one. When you see God work in a powerful way, or He uses you to touch somebody's heart, you want to see it again and again and again. There is excitement and enthusiasm, and in the midst of this, Jesus gives the disciples some great counsel. He said, "Come away by yourselves to a lonely place and rest a while."
Not because there wasn't anything to do. Look at the parenthetical insert: for there were many people coming and going, and they didn't even have time to eat. They were busy, and there were things to do. But Jesus said, not now — you need to get away.
Does that sound anything like your life? There are packages to assemble and presentations to make, papers to grade and kids to feed. Some of you work in businesses that are cyclical. If you're working in the jewelry business, you don't vacation in December. If you're a florist, you don't take Valentine's week off. He doesn't say, because you're busy and there's stuff to do, you keep going and we'll catch up later. He says, no, you need to get away by yourself — and they obeyed. They went away to a lonely place by themselves.
What Scripture Shows Us About Solitude
If Isaac Newton needed solitude, that intrigues me. If I go to Scripture and see Jesus say to the disciples that they need solitude, they need to be by themselves, they need to be refreshed, then maybe I need that too.
Keep reading in Mark chapter 6, and you'll see in verse 33 the account of the feeding of the 5,000 — men plus women plus children — and Jesus feeds them the loaves and the fishes. It is a very busy time, as it was for the disciples. But it is also a busy time for Jesus. Look at verse 45: "And immediately He made His disciples get into the boat and go ahead of Him to the other side, and while He Himself was sending the multitude away, after bidding them farewell, He departed to the mountain to pray, and in the morning He is on the land all alone."
As we read through the Gospels, we see this again and again and again, where Jesus, in the midst of His busyness, steps away to commune with the Father. If Isaac Newton needed it, I ought to consider it. If Jesus said the disciples need it, I have to believe I need it. And if the Savior Himself needed solitude — a time to pray, a time to be alone, a time to study, a time to commune with the Father — I need it too.
The Longing for Quiet
When we think of solitude, we think of just getting away. We had the best vacation this year. In both places we visited, we had peace and quiet — particularly in Flagstaff, where there was just absolute quiet. There simply weren't people around. It was such a change of pace, and it was terrific. There is something in you, in the busyness, that pines for that.
But then reality sets in. Thursday morning, I'm trying to get up to Lincoln and Tatum — about ten minutes from our house to the freeway. For whatever reason I was early that morning, so I got out on the freeway, and not 45 seconds in, I was stopped cold in traffic. And I'm thinking, what am I doing? Why am I living in this place? I'm in the middle of a desert, it's 500 degrees, and look at all these people — where are they all going at 5:52 in the morning?
Small-Town Life and a Different Pace
While I was home visiting family, I picked up a copy of the Albia Union Republican, dated September 4th. My dad is from a little town called Melrose, Iowa, with a population of about 200 to 220 people. Not far from there is a town called Albia, which has about 4,000 people, and Albia has the paper.
As you know, there was an awful lot going on in the world around September 3rd, so there was plenty to report. And what made the headline — five columns, upper fold — was that Denny Cassin had been honored as Iowa's 2003 Premier Breeder. That was a big deal. There was also the full monthly menu from the senior center, where on September 2nd they had served meatballs, sweet potatoes with brown sugar and marshmallows, and if you want to know what's on for Monday, it's liver and onions, parsley potatoes, carrots, and fruit crisp.
There was a picture of young Shea Harrison Amos, who had just turned one, and they found room to fit him in. There was coverage of local athletics, and one story that earned three columns was headlined "Horses Bugged by Bees and Flies." Jill Elswick was pictured with her lamb from the state competition — 856 lambs were shown and she finished fifth, which is pretty impressive. And under the leadership, direction, guidance, and foresight of Debbie Davidson, the café at the bowling alley was set to open. Meanwhile, on the back page, Charlie's Angels Part 2 was finally opening at the theater — advertised in a rather unusual way — and the local A&W restaurant announced they would be closed.
Meditation: Emptying vs. Filling the Mind
There are now ten million people meditating every day. Time Magazine ran a cover story on it while I was on vacation — "The Science of Meditation." It even tells you how to meditate. Find a quiet place, get up by yourself, close your eyes, shut out the world, and pick a word — any word, something that means something to you. Say it again and again and again, control your breathing, and now you are at one with the universe.
When we commend solitude to you, or when Jesus tells the disciples to get away, do you think He is having them empty their minds like that? He is not saying get everything out of your mind. That is what we tend to think of when we think of meditation, and it can lend itself to a great deal of misunderstanding. The idea is not emptying your mind — it is filling your mind.
Knowing Christ: The Supreme Goal
With what do we fill it? Philippians 3:8, in the Amplified Version, Paul said this: "Yes, furthermore, I count everything as loss compared to the possession of the priceless privilege, the overwhelming preciousness, the surpassing worth and supreme advantage of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, and of progressively becoming more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him, of perceiving and recognizing and understanding Him more fully."
He is saying that as a believer, as a follower of Christ, what I should thirst for — what I should desire more than anything else — is to know Him. Look at the terms he uses: progressively becoming more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him, perceiving, recognizing, understanding Him. And it starts in the head.
Chuck Swindoll, writing about this very verse, says this: "Like the great apostle, let us make this our determined purpose. Let's deliberately embrace the aim to become more intimately acquainted with Christ. Not intimately acquainted with theology, as important as theology may be. Not intimately acquainted with church, as valuable as church may be. Not with sharing Christ with others, as stimulating and significant as evangelism would be. No, none of the above. With Christ — knowing Christ."
The Danger of Following Your Heart
Susan and I were watching a football game and I flipped through the channels and landed on Daystar, a Christian station. Right in the middle of it, this man is saying, "Follow your heart! Follow your heart, not your mind, not your head. Your mind is carnal, your head is carnal. Follow your heart. After all, when you accept Jesus, you accept Jesus into your heart. Follow your heart — your heart, not your mind."
That is so bad. Is that what Paul says? Be transformed by new feelings? No — be transformed by the renewing of your mind. I want to know Him. You are saying feelings are not important? No, feelings are very important — as they flow from your mind. And that is what is so wrong with so much of Christianity today. People are following their heart.
Our counseling schedule here is filled with people who followed their heart, and it has led them into all sorts of sin, confusion, stupid judgments, and bad decisions. You do not put your brains on the shelf. I want to know Him more and more and more.
Knowing God Through His Word
So we talk about having a personal relationship with God — that is what distinguishes us. But what does that actually look like? It looks like a vibrancy in which He is communicating with me and I with Him. And how does He communicate? We live in a time that is absolutely confused on this.
Miss America was on last night, and Miss California is standing on the beach saying, "I love to come to the beach. I love the oceans, I love the breeze. I feel so at one with the universe here — so alive, so in tune with the world around me." Is that subjective enough for you? Is that how you know God?
No. If I want to really know God, I have to study His Word. I can know a little about God from creation — I can know He exists, I can see His power, I can see some of His attributes. But if I really want to know Him, I have to study.
Knowing God Above All Else
Is theology important? You know that it is. Is church important? You know that it is. Is evangelism important? Absolutely. But of supreme importance is knowing God, knowing Christ, communing with Him. And when that relationship is alive and vibrant, I thirst for theology — the study of God. I thirst to be in the body. I thirst to share this truth. I need to be with Him, to be with Christ, to know Christ, to study Him.
Paul writes this to the church at Thessalonica: "For this reason, we're constantly thanking God that when you received from us the words of God, the message, you didn't accept it as a word of men, but for what it really is, the word of God, which performs its work in you." Now you are in solitude — not necessarily on a rock on the beach. It may be in the office. It may be grabbing twenty minutes here and twenty minutes there, but understanding that you need that hour or two or three where you can sit and commune with Him and let Him speak to you through His Word. Paul says we thank God that that word wasn't just the word of men — it begins to perform its work in you.
What the Word of God Does
What does the Word of God do? It tells me how to be saved. It teaches me, rebukes me, confronts me, corrects me, disciples me, equips me, guides me, revives me, restores my soul, nourishes me, judges me, sanctifies me, enriches me, protects me, and makes me wise. That is His Word.
It is a joy to see you come in with a Bible and a notebook — you ought to do that. But I hope that is not the only time during the week you open the book. One author writes this of the Bible:
> This book contains the mind of God, the state of man, the way of salvation, the doom of sinners, the happiness of believers. Its doctrine is holy. Its precepts are binding. Its histories are true. Its decisions are immutable. Believe it to be wise. Believe it to be safe. Practice it to be holy. It contains light to direct you, food to support you, and comfort to cheer you. It is the traveler's map, the pilgrim's staff, the pilot's compass, the soldier's sword, the Christian's charter. Here heaven is open and the gates of hell disclosed. Christ is its grand subject. Our good is its design, the glory of God its end. It should fill the memory, rule the heart, and guide the feet. Read it slowly, frequently, prayerfully. It is a mine of wealth, health to the soul, a river of pleasure. It is given to you here in this life, will be opened at judgment, and established forever. It involves the highest responsibility, rewards the greatest labor, and condemns all who trifle with its contents.
Solitude with God and His Word
You need to be alone — just as the disciples did, just as Jesus did. But you do not sit and meditate with an empty mind, repeating the same word over and over again. No. You are alone with God and the Word of God, and He speaks to you through it.
One contemporary author writes: "Anyone who comes to the Bible with the primary purpose of gaining knowledge about theology misses its message. We must come with the purpose of understanding ourselves better so we can know God better." Is that right? No, that is not right. The primary purpose is to know God better. We have the order backwards. Like everything else, we want to glorify man in every way we can. This author — very popular, and many of you have his books — is saying that I need to know myself better in order to know God better. That is absolutely backwards.
I need to know God, and when I know God, I know myself. When I know God, I understand the world around me. J. I. Packer, in *Knowing God*, makes the point that all of a sudden life's pieces start to fall into place. He is not saying everything becomes smooth — he is saying that now you understand the world around you, you understand who God is, and everything begins to make sense.
Finding Direction Through the Word
How do I understand a very confusing world? How do I know how to live? How do I know where to spend my time, what is important, what is true, what is lasting, what is real? I go to this Word over and over again — not to discover myself, as absorbed as we can be in ourselves — but to discover Him, to discover Him as He really is.
Psalm 119, which discusses the Word of God at length, records the psalmist writing: "Establish your word to thy servant as that which produces reverence for thee." Now I have reverence for God. Dick Mayhew writes: "Intimacy with God is not reserved for a select group, but is within the grasp of every believer." That is the way you are supposed to live — to have an intimacy, a vibrancy of relationship with the creator God of the universe.
Do You Have That Relationship Now?
It is always interesting to me to meet people who come to this church from a denomination, especially a ritualistic denomination, and they talk about how vibrant this is. They see people who have a relationship with God, and that is very attractive and very different. But do you have that vibrant relationship? I am not asking whether you once had it. I am not asking whether you have ever entered into it. I am asking whether you have it now.
If the answer is no, I can almost guarantee it is because of one of two things: either you have stopped spending time with God and His Word, or you have not implemented what you know in your life. It has to be one of those two things.
The Discipline of Solitude
In his classic work *The Spirit of the Disciplines*, Dallas Willard divides the disciplines into two areas: the discipline of abstinence and the discipline of engagement. At the top of the abstinence list, he talks about solitude. When I talk about solitude — and this is just me; I have not read enough Willard to know if this is exactly what he would say — in my mind, solitude is a time when I am very much engaged. I am alone, but I study. I am alone, but I worship. I am alone, but I celebrate.
Don't Relegate Worship to Sunday Morning
Don't relegate worship to just the time when we're together for 25 or 30 minutes on a Sunday. You understand that you can have meaningful, celebratory worship all by yourself. I know what I'm asking you to do — it's very hard. I know you're very busy. I know there are deals to do and a lot of activity.
What I'm saying to you is, you can't afford not to spend time with this — just like the disciples. There are people who want to be served and need to be ministered to, and there wasn't even time to eat. So how am I going to have time to be with Him? Well, if I don't have time to be with Him, then the rest of this stuff isn't going to matter.
You're going to dry up very quickly. You're going to lose your zeal. You're going to become ambivalent — or worse yet, you're going to get into theology and become very stoic, very cold, very dogmatic, very narrow, very harsh, not too gentle, not too kind. There's a whole world out there, and it screams for attention.
The Call to Stillness and Depth
One author writes this — and personally I found this to be an insurmountable challenge, and I've realized its magnitude more in the past two years than ever before in my life — yet I'm more convinced than ever that there is no way you and I can move toward a deep, intimate relationship with our God without protracted times of stillness, which include one of the rarest experiences of all: absolute silence.
Richard Foster writes this: "Superficiality is the curse of our age. The doctrine of instant gratification is a primary spiritual problem. The desperate need today is not for a greater number of intelligent people or gifted people, but for deep people."
The Error of Religious Pluralism
When you go and spend time with God and talk about God, you begin to see a God different than the world sees. I think of Muhammad Ali. I love Ali. There are four things in my life I've seen that I'll never see again. Secretariat — never going to see a horse like Secretariat. The Beatles were absolutely incredible in the way they impacted the culture for that protracted period of time. John Wooden — you're never going to see a team dominate like that again. And Yogi Berra played 17 years, appeared in 14 World Series, and won 10 of them. You're not going to see that again.
But you're also never going to see anything like Ali again. He was an incredible athlete and an absolute delight to watch. Yet here is something he said that is simply wrong: "Rivers, ponds, lakes, and streams all have different names, but all contain water. So too, different religions all contain truth." That's just more of the same muddled thinking we encounter all around us.
If we go back to that list with Muhammad, Jesus, Buddha, and Confucius, they are not all right. They are saying radically different things. I want to know the one true God, and you are not going to find Him sitting on a rock on the beach. You are going to find Him in this Word.
Knowing God Through His Word
How do I know God? Psalm 46:10 — "Be still, and know that I am God." Even in the midst of hardship and difficulty, understanding God in its fullest comes when I encounter Him in His Word. That is where I am going to find it.
Let me take just a few minutes here to tease your appetite. When you get into this Word, you will discover God's non-communicable attributes — those characteristics that God has which pertain exclusively to Him. As you look at Him, you are going to see God differently than the world sees Him.
The world sees God primarily in terms of power: He's all-powerful, He's all-knowing. Consider this — you and I are very concerned about being caught in sin. If you did something and I came to you and said, "Somebody saw you," you would panic. Who was it? Your mom? Your dad? A friend, a teacher, a boss, a coworker? But what if I said, "No, none of them saw you — God saw you"? Let's be honest. For most people, the reaction would be relief: "Oh, it was just God who saw me." And yet He did see you. He knows everything. He is omnipresent — you cannot hide from Him. He is immutable — He does not change. He is sovereign, He created it all, He is eternal, immortal, great, and self-existent. Those are attributes of God, and there are others.
Communicable and Non-Communicable Attributes
As you begin to say, "I want to know God, I want to know Him intimately," and you study His Word, you are going to see a God very different from the caricature presented to you by the world around you. These are His non-communicable attributes — attributes He possesses that are not communicated to us. We do not have them.
But then there are His communicable attributes. Here they are: wisdom, faithfulness, truthfulness, love, gentleness, righteousness, mercy, compassion, and holiness. Those are attributes we see in God that should also be manifest in your life and mine. There should be graciousness, patience, peace, kindness, gentleness, joy, forgiveness, and justice.
Solitude Reveals God and Yourself
So here is what I am saying to you. You need solitude. You need to be isolated and alone — alone with God and with His Word. When you do that, you are going to discover who He really is. You are going to see God in all His majesty and splendor for who He truly is. And you will discover who you are and how you are supposed to live in the world around you.
Let me give you an example of this. Open your Bibles — we need to move quickly here.
The Two Kinds of Wisdom
James chapter 3 is where James writes about wisdom, contrasting God's wisdom with the world's wisdom. In verse 13, he says, "Who is wise among you and understanding? Let him show by his good behavior, his deeds, and the gentleness of wisdom." Then in verses 14, 15, and 16, he gives the negative side of this. There is a wisdom, a worldview, that comes from above, and you know whether you have it. If jealousy and selfish ambition are your prime motives, if there is strife, angst, and tension in your life, that tells you something.
By contrast, verse 17 lays out the characteristics of God's wisdom at work in a life. There should be purity — the absence of sin's pollution — along with peace, gentleness, reasonableness, mercy, good fruit, and unwavering conviction. That last quality, by the way, is not an excuse to be stubborn. East Valley Bible Church is, I think, a pretty understanding and flexible place, but not in doctrine. We are not going to negotiate on the position of God's Word, on the virgin birth, or on Christ and who He is.
Being unwavering means you are not simply blowing in the wind with every new fad, and that is precisely the problem in the church today. We follow every new direction, every new twist — the latest book, the latest conference, the latest thing. There should also be no hypocrisy. When you get alone in solitude with God's Word and deepen your intimacy with Him, and that relationship becomes more and more vibrant, you will begin to see how He also wants you to live. In your thinking, and therefore in your actions, those characteristics will be present.
No Shortcut to Intimacy with God
Let me close with a quote we looked at earlier from Dick Mayhew: "Intimacy with God is not reserved for a select group, but is within the grasp of every believer. There is no magic formula to achieving this. No pill to take, no club to join, no tape to listen to, no class to take. In fact, there's no shortcut. There is no way to microwave intimacy with God. There's only one well-marked path, the Word of God. Study it. Make it yours. It's the only gateway to your growing intimacy with God."
So let me close by asking you: do you have an intimate relationship with Him? It is going to manifest itself differently for different people, and your personality plays a role in how that relationship looks. But at its core, the question is this: do you know Him in the first place? Have you come to Christ in repentance and faith? If so, you have access to the Father — you can call Him Daddy — and yet there is reverence there as well. This Creator God, all-knowing, all-powerful, all-present, immutable, self-existent, who spoke the world into existence, makes Himself known to us in this book. Do you study it? Do you spend time alone with Him?
The Busyness That Will Rob You
I want to challenge you, because this will not just happen. The busyness of the world will rob you of your quiet time with Him. I know there are deals to be done. At 5:52 in the evening, when that freeway is jammed, I get a sense right there of the pressure people face in the marketplace. I talk to men and women all the time about how difficult it is. I know moms who are at home, where the kids are up at 6:30. You thought adding a second child would be fine — Biff wasn't bad, so you add Trish, and everything will be okay. But it is not times two, is it? It is more like times ten, because they never sleep at the same time. One is awake, one is asleep, there is no time to rest, and you are exhausted.
Maybe you need to get up at 5:30. If you forego this time with God, the world is going to eat you alive. Here is what will happen: you are going to dry up. This is going to become mere ritual. You will get bitter, harsh, and judgmental, or you will grow lackadaisical and drift toward license. Church becomes just a preference.
So how are you doing in that relationship? Is there intimacy there? It fluctuates — I go through that myself. There are times when it is so alive, so vibrant, and so real, and there are other times when it is not. Every time I stop and look, the problem is me. I have walked away from my personal study and started reading books about God rather than God's Word itself. I want to read the Word of God so that I know, love, and serve the God of the Word. There is no other way to do this. There is no other way to cut it or slice it or make it work.
Closing Prayer
Father, thank You for Your Word. Thank You for this truth. Thank You for Your Son, Jesus. God, we want to know Him more and more and more. Put in us a desire to be alone with You and commune with You. We pray this in Christ's name. Amen.