There are a million pursuits that life avails to us. Daily we are confronted with the multiplicity of items that are vying for the attention of our hearts. But in the midst of other seemingly attractive things to look upon stands the worthy One, Jesus. Loving Jesus is the greatest call that life has to offer. He surpasses every other thing, every other attraction, every other lesser lover. The world is jealously fighting to lure us away from the true pursuit of satisfaction. With all of its trinkets and lies it promises to satisfy, yet true and real satisfaction can only be realized in Jesus. 

True satisfaction is found in loving Jesus. The call to love Him well is worth investing all of our yes that we have to offer. Our whole yes means loving Him with our whole life, everything single thing about us. Loving Him well means we eliminate the conversation that says that we should compartmentalize our love for Jesus into spaces of our life that we have predetermined that He belongs. He belongs in every part, in every space. 

We must live with a jealousy to make Jesus central. Destroy your totem pole value system that seeks to put Him in first place. First place? That’s as if to say that He could be a little better, or even a lot better, than whatever it is that currently occupies space number two in your heart and life. Jesus transcends the whole priority list. He’s not first, He must be central. Central, meaning He is the center of all things, and all things find their proper placement and function when seen through His preeminence and our love for Him. 

Loving Jesus well takes work; but it is work worth working. Work? Yes, there is real work that is required on our part. Revelation says, “…repent and return to the works you used to do at first…” (Rev 2:5)

Let’s begin here…awareness affects attention. And attention is important because it affects interaction. Awareness -> Attention -> Interaction 

What I am aware of I am able to give my attention to. And what I give my attention to provokes me to interact with. In order to get to the point where we are developing real and meaningful interaction, we first have to learn how to develop our awareness. And we are talking about our awareness of the presence and person of Jesus in our life. 

Developing a greater awareness to the presence and person of Jesus in your daily life has the powerful potential to radically transform your life. 

But the goal is not just awareness, the goal is interaction. But I cannot interact with anything that I haven’t yet decided to give my attention to. And I cannot give my attention to something or someone that I am not aware of. You see how all of this works? 

So, what does that mean. That means that you begin here—because remember we are talking about works to help us stay in a place of loving Jesus and keeping Him central— anything that affects your awareness of His presence must be seen as an enemy in your life. That’s right. You have to see it in light of the violent threat that is purposes. Because, again, if it alters your sense of His presence, then it will directly affect you being able to give your attention to Him and His desires, and therefore it will become a hindrance to your ability to interact. 

We want to love Him well. And part of loving Him well is the removal of anything that may occupy a space in our heart or life that is currently causing me to be unaware of Him. Anything that is hindering or creating resistance to my sense of His presence. 

The question is no longer, “Can I do this?” The real question as we mature in loving Him well is, “Should I do this? What all will it affect?” We will discuss this in our next blog. But until then, as you begin to evaluate your own heart is there anything in your life right now that is affecting the way that you sense Him? The way that you see Him? The way that you are able to powerfully at any moment throughout the day recognize His nearness? If so, may our hearts be pricked with an ache to return to Him!