The scolding sun seared my skin as I sat by the sea in the Sunshine State. My giant forehead glowed red, and the rest of my body had roasted like a rotisserie chicken. When I returned home, no one assumed that I had painted myself brown or miraculously changed my ethnicity. I had clearly been basking in the blistering sun because the proof was all over me. That’s simply what time in the sun will do for you.  

That’s what time with the Son will do for you, too. When you spend enough time with Jesus, the proof will be written all over you. Talking often with Him will make a difference in the way you talk to others. Praying unceasingly before His face will change even the look on your face (cf. Acts 6:15). You cannot bathe in the rays of the sun without being noticeably affected, and you cannot bask in the presence of the Son without being profoundly transformed. 

People will notice the difference in your character and conduct, and their attention will be drawn to the One who made it (cf. Matt. 5:16). Even your adversaries will see the change in you, just as the satanically controlled Sanhedrin couldn’t deny that Peter and John had been with Jesus. As Luke said, “Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished. And they recognized that they had been with Jesus” (Acts 4:13). These men were with Jesus for so long that He rubbed off on them! They were walking and talking like the Lord because they had been walking and talking with the Lord. 

The transformation Jesus makes can also be very unsettling to those around you. Some may be worried that the Lord will rub off on them as well. Those who are not prepared to change their life may be intimidated by the change Christ has made in yours. They may resist getting close to you, fearful that they might get too close to the Lord by doing so. That is what happened to Moses after his extended meeting with the Lord atop Mt. Sinai:

“When Moses came down from Mount Sinai, with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand as he came down from the mountain, Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with God. Aaron and all the people of Israel saw Moses, and behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come near him” (Exodus 34:29-30).

The radical transformation that comes from being with Jesus is precisely what William D. Longstaff (1822-1894) expressed in his beautiful hymn, Take Time to Be Holy. The second verse encourages all believers to spend more time with Jesus in order to become more like Jesus:

“Take time to be holy, the world rushes on;

Spend much time in secret, with Jesus alone.

By looking to Jesus, like Him thou shalt be;

Thy friends in thy conduct His likeness shall see.”

Will you take time to be with Jesus?

Bible Gleanings is a widely-read weekend devotional column, written for the Murray Ledger & Times in Calloway County, Kentucky.