As I sit here at my little desk, looking out over 3 acres of gorgeous green land filled with towering pine trees and twisting oaks, I feel the swell rising on the inside of me again. That overwhelming, all consuming, fiercely confrontational emotion that screams from the inside… “He is worthy of my response!”
Over the last several years of my life the Lord has led me into a place that I unknowingly and innocently had been neglecting. My walk with the Lord was good. I went to church, read my bible, taught my kids about Jesus, prayed regularly, led worship all over, even fasted for numerous lengths of time. But in all of it, if I was being honest, the target of my life and my actions was me. One way or another, if I followed the motive far enough down the road, I ended up back at myself…serving myself. That’s an incredibly hard reality to acknowledge, let alone publicly declare.
We live in culture that validates and constantly fuels a self-serving existence. So much so that we can even take the Word of God or the person of Christ and somehow fit HIM around US. Our ministries, our good deeds, the messages we preach, the songs we sing, our church services, our friendships…all of it…can so subtly yet so assuredly take on a self-serving form and most of us don’t even realize we’ve been caught up right in the middle of that selfish storm.
Now, if you have stuck with me this far…you might be wanting to bounce out now that you see where I’m heading, but don’t! I want to ask you a question…the same question the Lord asked me several years ago…
“What does it mean, when the word says, ‘He is worthy’”?
That question was the question that broke down all my defenses and lead me right here. If Jesus is worthy, then that implies He has worth. And wouldn’t we all agree that He has worth? Great worth! But HOW MUCH WORTH? How much is He worth to you, to me? Is he worth that extra 5 minutes of sleep? Is he worth that extra 20 minutes of worship? Is he worth skipping the sermon for? Is he worth being still for? Is he worth wrestling through our weakness with? Is he worth preferring…his plans, his dreams, his thoughts over our own? Is he worth becoming our daydream? Is he worth the wandering thoughts in our heads? Is he worth our money? Is he worth our stuff? Is he worth our body, our success, or our reputation?
WHAT IS HE REALLY WORTH?
Friends, the reality is, if you’ve been with him…if you’ve heard his voice, or felt his touch, experienced his mercy, caught a glimpse of his beauty, felt his pleasure in your weakness, been plucked out of sinking sand by his great love, or known even for a moment the weight of his glory…then you know that NOTHING we do or give or choose apart from throwing it all at his feet will ever remotely equate to HIS GREAT WORTH.
If He is worthy of anything…He’s worthy of our response! He’s worthy of being the target of our life, our day, our hours, our minutes, our thoughts, our emotions. HE IS THE TARGET! Respond! Let yourself feel that overwhelming, fiercely confrontational emotion that only comes when you think upon that perfect Creator, that good Father, that friend that sticks closer than a brother, that precious Savior…think about Him and then let yourself respond!
When Mary of Bethany wasted all that perfume on His feet…there wasn’t a self-serving thought in her body. She had every right to keep it and be totally justified and still a true lover of Jesus, but instead, she made HIM the target. She thought of HIM. She preferred HIM. She responded.
When King David took that cup of water from the wells of Jerusalem that held within it the very life and sacrifice of his friends, he had every right to drink it and be totally justified and still a true man after the heart of God. But he poured it out like an offering, because honoring the Lord was the target. God was ALWAYS the target.
How can we declare His worth with our very lives today? How can we make HIM the goal? Jesus is the prize of this life. Jesus is the wealth and the treasure. Jesus friends! JESUS IS THE TARGET!