Thursday, June 27, 2019

Jesus, Draw Me Close


In John chapter 6 we read of Jesus feeding more than five thousand people and then withdrawing. The next day when the crowds sought Him out again He told them:

“Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking Me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves… I am the Bread of Life; whoever comes to Me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in Me shall never thirst” (John 6:26, 35 ESV).

We are often like the crowds, seeking Jesus to meet our felt needs rather than for a desire to know Him deeply. Sam Allberry wrote about this passage, “The greatest gift Jesus gives us… is Jesus. He is not the means to some other, separate end. The Bread of Life is not something else, with Jesus being the one who dispenses it for us. He is the prize.” Heath Lambert wrote, “They minimized Jesus and his work by seeing him as the source of only one good thing rather than cherishing him as the fountain for all life… You should come pursuing a full-fledged relationship with this sovereign King who saves, desiring to draw close to him in every way, and not just seeking to get your problems fixed” (142).

It’s not just unbelievers or young Christians who seek Jesus for the wrong reasons. Even those of us who’ve been on this journey for a while can lose perspective. Our prayers can become a shopping list: heal this person; save that one; bless our food; and, oh yes, I could use a little bit of forgiveness and freedom from temptation too. I know I’m not the only one to fall into this pit at times. It is all too easy to go through the motions of prayer and Bible reading without actually seeking God or interacting with Him. Alistair Begg often uses this short prayer at the beginning of his sermons: “Make the book live to me, O Lord. Show me Yourself within Your Word. Show me myself and show me my Savior, and make the book live to me, for Jesus’ sake.” That might be worth adopting for personal devotional times, though that too can become a meaningless habit.

How might our lives and our churches be different if we were truly and consistently seeking a living relationship with our Heavenly Father rather than seeking the good things He can give us? It is appropriate to be thankful for forgiveness, the promise of eternal life, and the blessings of life and family. But we may start to sound like little children at Christmas saying a perfunctory “Thanks!” while racing off to play with our toys. And yet children who only get periodic packages from an absentee parent quickly learn that gifts are meaningless apart from a loving relationship.

The Apostle Paul prayed for the Ephesians:

“[That] according to the riches of His glory He may grant you to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God” (Ephesians 3:16b-19).

The blessings of His riches are for the purpose of knowing the Father’s love—knowing the One who is love. We miss out when we settle on the gifts apart from the Giver. May we not stop short of knowing the best He has to offer—Himself.

“See what kind of love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are… So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him” (1 John 3:1, 4:16).


© 2019 Dawn Rutan. Unless otherwise indicated all images are copyright free from pixabay.com. The opinions stated do not necessarily reflect the views of my church or employer.