Give me Jesus

I just stumbled upon a tattered note from my husband stashed on top of our microwave. The opening line reads "Today I am praying that in the midst of all the tasks you may have for the day, that on the forefront of your mind will be Christ."

And I'm struck with how well my husband loves me, for he points me toward Love.

As John Piper says in Let The Nations Be Glad, "Love is helping people toward the greatest beauty and the highest value and the deepest satisfaction and the most lasting joy and the biggest reward and the most wonderful friendship and the most overwhelming worship--love is helping people toward God."

This Sunday in a fantastic sermon I heard (to paraphrase) that heaven is not an endless golf course with all your favorite friends and family. Heaven is Jesus, and if you don't want Him here, you probably aren't going to heaven.

So for days, I've been praying that just as my husband prayed, that on the forefront of mind would be Christ. That I would desire Him above all else. That my desire would be to be known by God. Beyond that, the most loving thing I can do for my husband, my children, my neighbors, is to point them toward Love, the only One who can satisfy.

In my week of "stumbling" --aka, sweet providence-- upon notes, scripture, readings that have stirred my soul, I read this "Gracious souls are never perfectly at ease unless they are in a state of nearness to Christ; for when they are away from Him they lose their peace. The nearer to Him, the nearer to the perfect calm of heaven; the nearer to Him, the fuller the heart is, not only of peace, but of life, and vigor, and joy...such hungry ones "shall be filled" with what they are desiring. If Christ thus causes us to long after Himself, He will certainly satisfy those longing; and when He does come to us, as come He, will, oh, how sweet it will be!" ~ Charles Spurgeon

And I stumbled upon this sweet tribute to a woman who like my grandmother, lived this life with eyes focused on the joy that was set before her, because Christ, "who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross..."





Lord, give us Jesus.