Monday, March 29, 2021
Psalm 37.3 is an exhortation to trust God, do good, and get in the harness to do your work knowing and believing that God’s faithfulness will provide all your needs.
Psalm 37.4 goes further, encouraging the believer to not forget to add delight in the LORD to all his doing under the sun, that in this atmosphere of delight even desire can be transformed from self service and self glorification to something far greater than the sum of its parts: desire can be reborn, retrained, even resurrected. When this happens, we have begun to learn to love the infinite, unsearchable, holy God.
This week we’re looking at the very first red letters in the book of John, which are found in chapter one, verses thirty-eight and thirty-nine. We will explore the full context throughout the week’s blogs, but for today I want to major on the first thing Jesus says here: “What do you seek?”
For me, having seen what I’ve seen over the years, the answer to this question is honestly, increasingly, nothing but Jesus. There was a time when He was not enough for me. I wanted so very many other things that have proven to be not just distracting but deadly.
I was longboarding with my youngest son at the park yesterday, and as we carved through the parking lot noticing cool cars, I saw one with a sticker on the window that said YOU ARE ENOUGH. “Lies,” I said. It triggered something in me. I explained to my son that if that infernal idea were really true, none of us would need Jesus. I will have none of this dethroning, dishonoring rubbish in my house or in my people. I need the blood of Jesus like my next breath; I need it to live. I am not enough. But Jesus is more than enough.
So what do I seek? I’m not perfect, but I know what I need, and knowing what I need positions me a whole lot closer to confessing the truth about what I seek. As I said, more and more now, it’s God and God alone.
What do you seek?
Have you stepped into the grace of a changed desire in your own life? Have you proven His grace enough times to have experienced the transformation of your very desires? Do you love the light? Do you trust it? Do you run for God or run from Him? If the latter, this is still the age of grace; you can still receive beauty for ashes, you can still trade in your garment of mourning for a garment of praise, but you must, as the psalmist said, trust.
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