John 17:24 - “Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory.“

Believers in Jesus are precious to God (we’re his bride!). And he loves us so much that he will not allow our preciousness to become our god. God does indeed make much of us (adoption!), but he does so in a way that draws us out of ourselves to enjoy his greatness.

Test yourself. If Jesus came to spend the day with you, sat down beside you on the couch, and said, “I really love you,” what would you focus on the rest of the day that you spend together?

Sometimes songs and sermons leave us with the impression that the heights of our joy would be in the recurrent feeling of being loved. “He loves me!” “He loves me!” This is joy indeed. But not the heights and focus. Would not the greatest, most Christ-exalting joy be found in watching Jesus all day and bursting with, “You’re amazing!” “You are amazing!”

He answers the hardest question, and his wisdom is amazing. He touches a filthy, oozing sore, and his compassion is amazing. He raises a dead lady at the medical examiner’s office, and his power is amazing. He sleeps during an earthquake, and his fearlessness is amazing. He says, “Before Abraham was, I AM,” and his words are amazing. We walk around with him utterly amazed at what we are seeing.

Is not his love for us his eagerness to do for us all he must do (including die for us) so that we can marvel at him and not be incinerated by him? Redemption, propitiation, forgiveness, justification, reconciliation -they are the acts of love. But the goal of love that makes those acts loving is that we be with him and see his jaw-dropping glory and be astounded. In those moments we forget ourselves and see and feel him.
(Taken from John Piper’s devotional, The Goal of Christ’s Love).

Today, let’s thank the Lord for unfathomable love for us in Christ. Even more so, let us enjoy being with Jesus and marvel at his glory. Let our affections for him overflow.

-AP