PSALM 73:25 – Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.

THEME OF THE DAY. HOW MUCH VALUE IS CHRIST TO US? Whatever or whomever we are passionate about, we will spare no effort, no sacrifice, and no pain to achieve or enjoy. It doesn’t matter what it is; the value we place on the achievement, attainment or person motivates us to give ourselves totally over to obtaining it. I remember growing up and the intense love I had for baseball. And the passion to be good at it. I would “eat, sleep, breathe” baseball. I would give hours over to the rigors of practice and repetition. I would sacrifice other things, even other good things, to achieve the goal of not only enjoying baseball, but being very good at baseball. Now move that into the spiritual realm and our relationship with the living God.

Ask any Christian, “Do you want to know God and live a life pleasing to Him?” and they might respond like this, “Does a fish live in water? Do birds fly? What kind of silly question is that? Of course, I want to know God and live a life pleasing to Him. After all, aren’t those the goals in the Christian life?” As the dust settles on that short dialogue, ask the same Christian these questions, “How are you doing in knowing God and living a life pleasing to Him? Tell me about the intensity of your pursuit of God.” The conversation may go from silly to serious quickly. It might even be met with some sheepish silence which is an admission of “I need work in those areas.” After a short time of reflection, read or quote today’s scripture to your Christian brother or sister. Then ask one final question, “Does the heart of the Psalmist describe you?”

The last paragraph was hypothetical. Now let’s drive it home to our lives right now. Are we passionate to know God? Do our lives reflect an uncompromising pursuit in His Word, prayer, and church to know Him? May we with the Psalmist in today’s scripture say, “There is nothing on earth that I desire besides You”? Friends, that is the Christian life. God saved us to be intensely in love with Him and to intensely seek Him. Our salvation is designed to take us from being consumed with ourselves to being consumed with God. He gave us His Son, His Spirit, and His Word that we might be a people who seek Him with all our hearts, all our minds, and all our efforts. Do we know what was behind the great movements of God in the book of Acts and revival periods? It wasn’t the flurry of service or activity by Christians. It was their closeness to Jesus Christ and their unquenchable thirst to know Him and make Him known. And that same type of movement may happen in our lives and the lives in our churches too, but there is a condition to be met.

We will only give ourselves completely over in time, effort, and diligence to know the Lord Jesus as we value the Lord Jesus. Low value of Christ naturally produces little desire for and a minimal seeking of Christ. We simply won’t desire and seek Him if we don’t value Him. Back to my baseball illustration, my intense desire to be good was verified as a true desire by the effort I gave to being good. I placed high value on the goal – being a good baseball player. And it is the same with us and the Lord Jesus. I, we, simply cannot say, “I want to know the Lord” and then live undisciplined lives of no self-control to seek Him consistently and earnestly in His Word, prayer and church. This reveals an undervaluing of Christ. And where He is not valued, He is not desired and sought. True desire is only true desire when the greatest of effort to pursue the desire is given because of its value.

God gives every true child of His a desire to know Him. It is part of new birth, but the desire must be fed by us. And as we see the value in knowing God because of who He is, we will find the words of the Psalmist becoming our words – “Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you” because we will be tasting the goodness of the Lord.

PRAYER: “Father, show me Your glory that will fuel my effort to know You more and more.”

QUOTE: “We will only seek Christ if we value Christ.”