Sep
02
2010
A Prayer About Revering Jesus
Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. Ephesians 5:21
Dear Jesus, it always come back to you, and well it should. There’s simply nothing more important about us than how we think about you. In every season of my life… during the course of any given day, the question is always on the table, “Who do you say I am?” (Matt.16:15), and you’re doing the asking. How we respond affects every relationship in which you’ve placed us.
Continue to free me of every wrong notion I’ve ever had about you, Jesus… those generated by the projections of my vain imagination… the corrupting lies of Satan… the distortions of wrong or incomplete teaching… or the glory-limiting blinders of my unbelief.
Fill our hearts with fresh gospel-induced reverence for yourself, Jesus—that is, awe… wonder…astonishment… amazement… gratitude… humility… joy… adoration… love.
I want to revere you, Jesus, not be afraid of you. Your perfect love for us in the gospel drives out all fear. Fear has to do with judgment and punishment, and you’ve already exhausted both on those for us on the cross. I rob you of glory when I second guess the sufficiency of the cross.
I want to revere you, Jesus, and not take you for granted. I struggle with this more than being afraid of you. Forgive me when the theology of the gospel rolls off my lips with staccato-like precision… yet devoid of childlike wonder. It’s not okay when I show more passion in defending justification than astonishment that you’ve justified me.
I want to revere you, Jesus, and not fall into presumptive familiarity. You are God and I am not. That you died to make us your Bride… that you’ve already dressed us in the wedding garments of your righteousness… and that you love us as an impassioned Bridegroom, is absolutely staggering and brimming with implications. What does it mean to come alive to this blessed standing in grace and these outrageous measureless riches, without assuming the right or ever “getting used to it”?
Show us, Jesus, show us. So very Amen, I pray, in your matchless and merciful name.