By Lucretia Smithers
Lucretia disciples men and women on the foundational truths of being a follower of Jesus, and she also serves with the SVM2 USA facilitation team and lives in Oklahoma.
What does it mean to be fascinated with someone or something? The word fascinated means to be captivated or caught, and to never weary of spending energy on the object of our fascination.
This type of captivation is held by strong ties of love and is subdued by beauty and excellence. When we are fascinated, we have our affections and passions captured and directed with purpose and desire.
In ancient times they described being fascinated in two ways; one was by the look of the eye, the other by words.
God is fascinated with us!
Something that I find absolutely amazing is that our Creator is actually fascinated by us.
He has known us from the beginning and has numerous hope-filled thoughts for us that out number all the sand of all the sea! (Ps. 139; Jer. 29:11) He loves us deeply and His desire is for us to love Him and spend our days connected to Him.
He is constantly pursuing a trust-filled relationship with us. He says in the Song of Solomon that we have captured His Heart with one glance of our eyes. He says that He wants to see our lovely face and hear our sweet voice in the secret place. (SOS 2:14; 4:9)
The first time I read that as a young woman I thought “really, can this possibly be true? Does my Jesus really want me to come and talk to Him and will He really let me look upon Him and know Him?”
You see, the problem is we have trouble really believing these sweet things about our Jesus because we know all our flaws and weaknesses. We also have an enemy that wants to remind us of our failures.
But our Jesus is always reaching and trying to help us understand how much He really loves us and desires for us to walk in forgiveness, victory, and blessing.
Whether we are in need of salvation for the first time or we are an older Christian, I believe He is constantly restoring us to the original purpose of fellowship with Him.
Hindrances to our Fascination with Jesus Christ
If we are honest, we would all admit that there are hindrances constantly reaching in to distract us from staying focused and fascinated with Jesus. These hindrances steal our time, attention and ultimately our desires.
These things don’t necessarily have to be inherently bad, but I believe we do need to ask ourselves if these activities or habits steal from our top priority of loving Jesus and loving others. Remember, being fascinated is to have our affections captured with a purpose.
All through the Bible we see that His purpose in our life is to rescue us from our sin and to restore us to right relationship with Him. He then wants to use our lives to draw others to Himself.
I believe one practice that distracts us in this present generation from being more in love with Jesus, is our fascination with entertainment and modern conveniences. There are so many things to see and do!
This issue has helped contribute to our generation not knowing how to be still and wait in God’s presence. Don’t misunderstand me, I do believe these tools are a wonderful help to us. Nevertheless, these earthly fascinations should not steal our time of learning to wait on Jesus in prayer and Bible study.
Keeping our Focus on Jesus Christ
As we take time to focus on Jesus, we will become amazed at how much He truly loves us. Our God humbled Himself into the form of a baby, overcame sin and death all for our sake. His heart sees every dark corner and desires to touch and heal those places.
I personally know Jesus to be a Savior who rescues me from my sin and lifts me to a place of forgiveness and safety. I know Him as Shepherd who gently leads me to a place of rest when all is confusion around me.
I know Him to be my provider and meet all the needs I have spiritually and physically. I know Him to be my Father when I need guidance, discipline and counsel. He is my friend when I just need someone to talk with about how I’m feeling. He is the lover of my soul who constantly satisfies the needs of my heart.
Over and over He quiets any restlessness I may have into a place of sweet contentment. He is my healer as well when my heart has been wounded and is in need of His gentle healing touch.
The Hindrance of Fear
There have been times in my life when fear has tried to capture my heart and I have discovered Jesus to be my Peace in a deeper way. One such time was during my last pregnancy, seven years ago when a large tumor developed on my neck.
It became quite uncomfortable and made it difficult to breathe as I slept at night. When I would wake up unable to catch my breath, I could hear Jesus say “I am your breath of life…don’t be afraid.”
After visiting the doctor he said he would need to operate and remove it and then determine exactly what it was. As I prayed, I sensed Jesus say that it was a simple thing. Well, if you could have seen me, it didn’t look simple because the tumor was very large.
The day of surgery came and we had to sign papers giving permission to do radical neck dissection. They said I could possibly come out with my face paralyzed or experience the loss of my voice.
I remember now as they took me into surgery the sweet presence of Jesus was very near me, comforting my heart into a place of trusting Him with my life. The surgery went well and they removed a baseball size fluid filled cyst.
I praise the Lord that there were no difficulties whatsoever or problems resulting from the surgery. The Lord also provided for the cost of this operation. I thank and praise Jesus for being my peace, healer and provider in this serious and scary situation in my life.
Waiting on Jesus
How can we become fascinated by our Jesus? How can we learn to keep our eyes on Him and our ears listening for His voice? How can we live in a place of trust, clinging to Him as our provider in each circumstance?
I believe as we trust His words to us we will learn to live in a place of surrender to Him. Ps 37: 7 says “Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently on Him,…do not fret for it only causes harm.” Learning to truly wait on Him is the basis of being fascinated with Him.
Two practical ways we wait on our Jesus is through prayer and studying His word. In prayer we pour out our hearts to Him and listen for His response. As we practice this discipline of prayer and getting our minds and hearts still before Him we learn to Hear His Voice.
We also must learn His word and hide it in our hearts so we won’t become preoccupied and fascinated with the things of this World.
We can be confident in His word when everything else around us is unstable. It is necessary to stay in a place of surrender knowing that He is all wise and perfect and always has our best interest in mind.
So, how can you know if you are growing in being fascinated with Jesus? Is your spirit sweet even when things don’t work the way you had hoped?
That is being fascinated with Him. Is your heart surrendered to Jesus in times of trial? That is being fascinated with Him. Do you run to Him first with questions and concerns? That is being fascinated with Him.
Are you setting aside time to wait on Jesus? That is being fascinated with Him. Are you living in a place of surrender to Him with your today and your future? That is being fascinated with Him.
Jesus, Help Your people everywhere become more and more fascinated with You!
