Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ: His Power

Last night after my meeting, I took some time to read John Piper's book, Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ. What an incredible read. I will be delving into the book again in a few weeks as part of the coursework I am taking this summer, but wanted to get ahead of the game. The book, in its entirety, was challenging and I found myself wondering... Do I really see and savor Jesus Christ? Do I value him above all things? Do I understand his worth?

It was intriguing to reflect on the reality that he is the end all of all. He is the prize. Everything that I do as a believer is with this aim: to know the glory of Jesus Christ and to be satisfied in him. I find this both exciting and difficult. Why? Simply because it's tremendous to realize that my faith is not about me, but him; at the same time, this is an awkward truth because on one level or another I really want it to be about me.

One of my favorite sections of the book was Piper's chapter entitled, "The Waves and the Winds Still Know His Voice: The Power of Jesus Christ." I was moved by the prayer at the end and wanted to share it with you.

A Prayer

O Lord, the suffering in the world is so widespread and the pain is so great! Have mercy, and waken the souls of suffering millions to the hope of some relief now and unsurpassed joy in the age to come. Send your church, O God, with relief and with the word of the Gospel that there is forgiveness of sins through faith in Christ and that no suffering here is worth comparing to the glory that will be revealed to the children of God. Protect your church, Father, from callous thoughts about calamities that leave millions destitute, and protect her also from cowing to critics, like Job's wife, who cannot trust the wisdom and power and goodness of Christ in the midst of inexplicable misery. Oh, help our unbelief. Incline our hearts to your Word and to its assurances that you "work all things according to the counsel of your will" and that "no purpose of yours can be thwarted" and that you are doing good and acting wisely in ways that we cannot now even dream. Keep us in peace, O Lord, and forbid that we murmur and complain. Grant us humble and submissive hearts under your mighty hand. Teach us to wait and watch for your final and holy purposes in all things. Grant that we would "rejoice in hope" even when present circumstances bring us to tears. Open the eyes of our hearts to see the greatness of our inheritance in Christ, and send us with tender hands to touch with mercy the miseries of the world. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.

When I read this, I felt like, "God, let this be true of my life as a believer" -- that I would consider the power of Christ in the present and seek to be a vessel of mercy and hope to a world that experiences such hardship and focuses on the negative. Can you imagine what the world would look like if we, the church, actually lived our lives like this? Imagine the power of Christ, of the Gospel, going out to the broken world we live in and how the world would change... How we would change. Now, that would be something.