About wanting Jesus
Jesus loves us and all He desires is for us to love Him back. It is pretty simple.
He wants us to love Him back.
As a lover desires his beloved, so Jesus desires us. Although we may turn away from Him, His desire is still toward us.
"I want you," He calls. "Please, come to Me and let Me love you, let Me show you My great love."
It hurts Jesus so when we ignore His call or when we do things that are not what He desires.
We
take steps away from Him and the Holy Spirit is grieved. We love the
world more than we love Him. We think that He doesn't care what we
do. But Jesus cares very much.
It makes a difference as to how
we spend our time, how we spend our energy, how we spend our money! It
makes a difference to God and it makes a difference in our relationship
with Him.
If we say, "Oh, I don't think Jesus cares what I do"
then we are greatly mistaken. If we say, "Oh, Jesus will forgive me"
then we are greatly presumptuous.
But if we say, "Jesus, I want you. I want to please You. I want to be careful," then He is pleased.
The Christian life is pretty simple, really.
God works according to our desire. So where is your desire
right now? Are you wanting Jesus right now? Are you wanting to please
Him right now?
One night a few years ago I had a dream and in
the dream I was walking in a beautiful mansion. And a matronly type lady, a
lady of some years, was showing me around. And in my dream the woman
said to me that God was allowing me to have this dream. And I realized
that this mansion was the foyer of heaven.
And I was talking to
someone next to me about this subject: wanting Jesus. And I thought I
was doing all right in my Christian life, that I was pretty dedicated.
But I turned to the woman and asked her, "Am I wanting Jesus?"
And
the woman turned her head away from me for a moment and in that moment
I knew she was contacting the Father and talking to Him and listening
to Him.
And then she turned back to me and smiled a very
wonderful deep smile and shook her head and said (in answer to my
question), "Not very much."
And I was so grieved to hear this! I
was so sure I was in love with Jesus! But she said, "Not very much".
And the dream began to fade and the woman disappeared and I was crying,
"Wait! Tell me how I can want Jesus more! Tell me what I should do!
Wait! Tell me what I need to do!"
And it was as if a hole was
closing and I was calling into the small opening, "Wait, please wait.
Tell me what I should do to want Jesus more!"
And then I was
waking up and before I woke up I had a word in my soul that showed me
the problem. Something God wanted me to work on. Some area of my life.
I won't share the word with you because God wants you to hear the word
for yourself. He wants you to hear it and then to pray about it and
say, "Jesus, help me to want you more. More than this."
And all this is true and if you pay attention, God will help you in your desire for Him.