Jeremiah 29:13. You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.
John 1:40-41. One of the two who heard John speak and followed Him, was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. He found first his own brother Simon and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which translated means Christ).
Philippians 3:7-10. But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death;
Countless numbers over the many centuries since the Lord Jesus lived, died and was resurrected have found salvation by grace through faith in Him. For many it has been a truly amazing and life changing experience that they are always ready to recount to others. Many times their testimony to the saving power of Jesus is expressed to others so that these too may be brought to the same glorious state of forgiveness from sin and connection with our Father in heaven. However, sadly, the evidence appears to be that comparatively few press on to find an ongoing deep and intimate relationship with Jesus.
‘You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart’. God in the person of Jesus may become a real living person to us yet, have we discovered who He really is and experienced Him as the resurrected and ascended victorious Lord Jesus Christ? If we have indeed found Him, will not the evidence of it be that we live daily, moment by moment, in His presence? If we have really encountered Jesus shall we not consistently seek to please Him rather than to please ourselves? His Lordship over our life will be the evidence of our discipleship.
Jesus’ disciple Andrew’s words to his brother Simon ring down the corridors of time, “We have found the Messiah”. That assurance from his brother was enough for Simon Peter to find Jesus and also to become His disciple. Can we doubt that these two apostles had been seeking their Messiah with all their heart?
‘But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord’. These opening words of the apostle Paul from Philippians 3 express so graphically the cost of setting aside short term gratification in order to gain the eternal and unspeakable reward ‘of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord’. This reminds us of others of his words from 2 Corinthians 6:10, ‘….having nothing yet possessing all things’.
How easy it is to make the testimony of the apostle Paul a reason to place him on a pedestal far above the realm of us as lesser mortals. Yet Paul’s life decision to surrender all to Jesus may be made by the wealthiest person on earth or the most destitute pauper. It is more a matter of who really owns our money and possessions rather than whether He demands that we divest ourselves of them all. The acid test will always be how much of the beloved person of Christ have we gained, rather than what we have been asked to give up.
‘….and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith….’ God forbid that we should be aware of righteousness in ourselves. The righteousness of God obtained through faith is what others will see in us as the testimony of Jesus. May it be His words through us they will hear. May it be the deeds of Christ through us they will see. May it be His nature they will encounter in all our behaviour.
‘….that I may know Him’. As our commitment to hear and obey His every word becomes the unwavering pattern of our daily life, albeit with falterings along the way, we shall willingly take upon us His easy yoke and walk with Jesus along the pathway of His perfect will. To increasingly know Him will be to increasingly love Him until we shall be lost forever in His embrace.
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