What kind of Jesus do you want? (1)

“So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.” (Luke 12:21)

What kind of Jesus do you want? Do you want the Prozac Jesus, who will make you feel better? He will be only your sovereign Savior King.

What do you define as blessing? What do you identify as a sign of God’s faithful­ness and care? What fills your picture of the “good life”? When you say, “If only I had _________, then I’d be content,” what goes in the blank? When you are tempted to envy the life of someone else, what are you envying? What causes you to question God’s goodness and love? What tempts you to be disappointed with your life? Be honest—what do you want from God? Or maybe this is a more provocative way of saying it—what kind of Messiah do you want Jesus to be?

I think many of us are just not on Jesus’s agenda page. What we dream of and hope for is not the same as what He has promised us and works by zealous grace to deliver to us. Perhaps many of us struggle with disappointment with God because, at street level in our daily lives, we don’t esteem what God values. Could it be that many of us don’t treasure what God has harnessed the forces of nature and controlled the events of human history to deliver to us? Maybe many of us do want nothing more than Prozac Jesus, who will make us feel better and make our lives easier, for which we would give Him thanks and name Him as faithful.

Perhaps many of us want control more than we want redemption. We wish we had more control over the people and circumstances of our lives. That would be the good life for us.

Perhaps many of us crave success more than we crave redemption. We are willing to do almost anything to be successful; meanwhile, we neglect the things that God says have eternal value.

Perhaps many of us esteem acceptance more than we esteem redemption. We find more joy in the acceptance of the people around us than we do in the abound­ing love of God.

Perhaps many of us desire comfort and pleasure more than we desire redemp­tion. If our lives could just be easier and more predictable, we would be satisfied.

Perhaps many of us want material things more than we want redemption. We tend to judge the quality of our lives by the size of the piles of stuff we have acquired.

Now, none of these things is inherently evil. It is not wrong to desire any of them. The question is this: “What set of desires rules my heart?” This is important because the desires that rule your heart determine how you evaluate your life, how you make small and large decisions, and, most importantly, how you think about the goodness and faithfulness of God. Your Messiah is ever faithful; maybe your struggle of faith comes from the fact that you don’t really value what he’s working to produce in your heart and life. He is much, much more than Prozac Jesus; he is your sovereign Savior King.

P.D.T.