“Then Jesus, looking at him, loved him . . .” Mark 10:21. This look of Jesus will require breaking your heart away forever from allegiance to any other person or thing. Has Jesus ever looked in this way at you?
I just love what Chambers comes up with. That question is really something to ponder. Years ago, I had a mentor named Mike. I was 20-something and Mike and his wife spent hours with me and a few other young people. They really exhibited to us what it was like to walk closely with Jesus. One day Mike looked at me and said, "Do you still love Jesus?" That question has stuck with me all of these years later.
Do I love him enough to break away from all other allegiances?
This look of Jesus transforms, penetrates, and captivates. Where you are soft and pliable with God is where the Lord has looked at you. If you are hard and vindictive, insistent on having your own way, and always certain that the other person is more likely to be in the wrong than you are, then there are whole areas of your nature that have never been transformed by His gaze.
Chambers manages to cut right to the core of my heart. Nothing can come between my heart and Him. The rich young ruler had an allegiance to something other than Jesus. When Jesus looked at him and called him on it...it was his way of calling for a transformation. It may have been just the beginning. I'd like to think that that gaze stuck with him for years and that he did turn fully to Christ.
Photo by Xip. Flickr Creative Commons
I appreciate that God took the time to tell us that Jesus loved this man, because this man is us. We all struggle, we all hang on to things we should let go, and we are all loved by Him.
ReplyDeleteI'd like to think he eventually turned everything over to Christ too.