“How Much of Jesus Do I Want?” by Judy Webb
Did you know that Jesus wants your whole heart? He wants everything you’ve got. Your hopes, dreams, desires, strengths, weakness,e wants all of it. He wants to invade your space, your mind, your body. Jesus wants total surrender. He wants to fill your thoughts from morning to night. He wants to speak to you in the stillness and in the noise. Jesus wants you. He loves you. He knows that the more of yourself you offer up to Him the more of Him you will be able to receive. How much of Jesus do you really want?
Read this heartbreaker of a story about a wealthy man who respected Jesus and wanted to receive eternal life.
The Rich Young Man (Matthew 19:16-22English Standard Version (ESV)
And behold, a man came up to him, saying, “Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?” And he said to him, “Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good. If you would enter life, keep the commandments.” He said to him, “Which ones?” And Jesus said, “You shall not murder, You shall not commit adultery, You shall not steal, You shall not bear false witness, Honor your father and mother, and, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” The young man said to him, “All these I have kept. What do I still lack?” Jesus said to him, “If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” When the young man heard this he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.
This man knew some things about Jesus. He knew that Jesus was a trustworthy teacher.. He knew that Jesus had wisdom about how to receive eternal life. I can picture the scene in my mind. The man approaches Jesus and asks how to live forever. What do I have to do to have this life eternally? What is it in me that I can offer that you will find acceptable? I can feel the longing to know that truth. Deep in me I know that he was hoping that Jesus would make him feel better, that Jesus would give him some assurance. Yes, I have kept the commandments since childhood, Jesus is that enough? But Jesus in His wisdom knows the idolatry in the rich man’s heart. He knows the rich man is holding onto to his wealth with such brute determination that there is no way his hand would ever open to the gift of eternal and abundant life that Jesus is offering. He walks away sad, hands clenched to his money bags, knowing that He will never have the life that Jesus gives. If our hands are tight-fisted, clutching to the things of the world, we will never know the miracle of Jesus filling them with His life.
So I ask the question again. How much of Jesus do you really want? Are you willing to let go of your finances? Are you willing to let go of your desire to control your own little world? Are you willing to let go of your fear of man to worship Jesus with passion and orthodoxy? How important to you is your favorite show, car, house, hobby? Hear the words from our good friend the Apostle Paul “Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ” (Philippians 3:8). Paul experienced the reality of Jesus in such a way that he knew there was nothing in the world he would rather have than Jesus. Everything else wasn’t just secondary, it was nothing, garbage, compared to Jesus.
We live in this upside down kingdom. Jesus’s invitation is to die to ourselves that we might have abundant life in Him. It is to let go of the riches of the world to embrace the wealth of the kingdom of God. It means to unashamedly look to Jesus and let Him make our faces radiant, never covered with shame, knowing that we are a delight to our Father.
Dear Jesus, show us what it means to want more of you. Speak to our hearts in a way that we can not deny that it is you speaking. Move us to be worshippers of God. Open our hearts to receive the blessings of your presence. Transform us to be like Paul who counted everything rubbish compared to knowing you. We repent of that one thing that is a place of idolatry. Lord, we lay it down. At the end of the day, You are all that remains. Jesus in us, the hope of Glory.
About the Author ~ Judy Webb
I am an average girl with an amazing God. I was never that brave, never really outgoing, usually was afraid of new situations. I would often try to hide who I really was in order to fit into a crowd. I was probably on a road that was going to look mundane and ordinary, but God had extraordinary plans for me. He rescued me from the monotony of existence without Him to a great joy and peace in Him. He set my life on a whirlwind adventure as a missionary in Korea and in Germany. I was given the great joy of sharing my life in Christ with teens on many continents. Today I am wife to Jeff, and mom to Zack and Caleb. When I am not playing with my boys or struggling through spelling words, I love to sit in a living room with a group of ladies and just dig into the Word together. I also love to write about the joy I have in Christ and the truth He teaches me. I am a member of Rivertree Church where I help lead ladies’ Bible Study.
2 Comments
Beautiful, Judy! Wonderfully challenging. Thanks so much for sharing.
Well ain’t that the awesome truth Judy!!! Thanks for sharing. The plans Jesus has for us are better anyways. (But it can be hard to remember that when ‘giving up’ something we think we really want).