Luke 10:25-28
Love God With All Your Soul, All Your Strength, and All Your Mind
25 On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
26 “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”
27 He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”
28 “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”
Luke 5:15-16
Jesus Prays in Lonely Places
15 Yet the news about him spread all the more, so that crowds of people came to hear him and to be healed of their sicknesses. 16 But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.
Luke 4:42-44
Jesus Withdrew to Solitary Places
42 At daybreak, Jesus went out to a solitary place. The people were looking for him and when they came to where he was, they tried to keep him from leaving them. 43 But he said, “I must proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns also, because that is why I was sent.” 44 And he kept on preaching in the synagogues of Judea.
John 5:8-15
Jesus Slips into a Crowd After a Healing
8 Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” 9 At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.
The day on which this took place was a Sabbath, 10 and so the Jewish leaders said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat.”
11 But he replied, “The man who made me well said to me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’ ”
12 So they asked him, “Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk?”
13 The man who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there.
14 Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, “See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.” 15 The man went away and told the Jewish leaders that it was Jesus who had made him well.
Mark 7:31-37
Jesus Heals a Deaf and Mute Man
31 Then Jesus left the vicinity of Tyre and went through Sidon, down to the Sea of Galilee and into the region of the Decapolis. 32 There some people brought to him a man who was deaf and could hardly talk, and they begged Jesus to place his hand on him.
33 After he took him aside, away from the crowd, Jesus put his fingers into the man’s ears. Then he spit and touched the man’s tongue. 34 He looked up to heaven and with a deep sigh said to him, “Ephphatha!” (which means “Be opened!”). 35 At this, the man’s ears were opened, his tongue was loosened and he began to speak plainly.
36 Jesus commanded them not to tell anyone. But the more he did so, the more they kept talking about it. 37 People were overwhelmed with amazement. “He has done everything well,” they said. “He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.”
Jeremiah 29:13
Seek Me with Your Heart
13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.
Jesus revealed Himself to us, as He went around Israel teaching others...And we know His purpose was not to give evidence to everyone that He was the Son of the Blessed One...And it was not to prove to everyone that He is from heaven...He could have done that if He chose, but His Father and Him chose a different way to reveal to us that He is the Messiah...
As Jesus taught around Jerusalem and Galilee He came and went about it in an interesting way...Jesus often withdrew to lonely places to pray...He seems to like to pray alone and be by Himself...We read that He often goes to lonely places and solitary places to be by Himself...And after He healed a man who was crippled, He just slipped away right into the crowd, and the one healed had no idea at the time who healed him...And the time He healed a deaf man, He told the people around the healing not to tell anyone...All of these incidents are mysterious...Can we learn from how He taught and traveled from village to village?...
Jesus seems to like to be alone...He seems to be a Solitary Man, a Man alone, but a Man not lonely at all...He seems not to want to draw attention to Himself...He seems to avoids crowds...He focuses a lot on the individuals that He talks and makes conversations with...He just quietly slips away after a great healing, drawing no attention to Himself in leaving...He tells people not to tell others about some of His healings...He withdraws to lonely and to be in these solitary places by Himself...He seems in these situations, almost to be an Introvert...Jesus is a quiet and Solitary Man...And all the while, He is quiet and solitary and seems to avoid crowds...But He is God in the flesh, and can draw a crowd and attention in the blink of an eye...But He does not want attention, nor did He seek out attention or fame...And through His different movements and things can we learn more about Him?...
While in complete control of the universe and nature, Jesus does not want those around Him to know that He is (in complete control)...Why is that?...First of all, He is the most humble Man ever to walk the earth...But maybe He wants us to learn about quietness, solitary, and avoiding of fame and crowds...He must want us to be more humble, quieter, confident, and yet solitary in nature...Maybe He does not want us to be loud and boisterous...I have never read about Him being prideful...Maybe we overlook these things a little about Him as we read the four gospels...His actions and the way He goes about His day mean something...
Maybe we are much to focused on using our minds to know in seeking Him and His Father...Could we completely love our spouses and families, if we only used the logic of our minds?...But we do understandable want to believe in Him using our intellect...We want to look at Him and explain Him factually to others...Especially, to those who do not believe in Him...But this is not possible...Maybe this scientific-like approach to proving His Being (and explaining Him), is not the only way He wants us to observe Him...Maybe He wants us to use our hearts first, our souls next, and then our strength and senses, and then our minds...If we look for Him only with our minds and try to find Him through reason, facts, and rational, maybe that is only a part of finding Him and seeking Him...Maybe He wants us to use our hearts and souls and strength and our imaginations to get closer to Him...If I am going about seeking Him using only my mind, then maybe He remains more aloof to me...And maybe seems more afar...Maybe, just maybe, there is another way to learn and believe in things, besides thinking with the mind and using our senses...The way and ways God chooses to reveal Himself may cause us to use our heart more, our soul's more, and our strength and senses more...He wants a relationship that is spiritual, that is holy, that is love, and that is sacred...I am not sure that we can do that only by using our minds...