Desire Insatiable Hunger

Scotty Smith post:  A Prayer for Greater Gospel Astonishment

     I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead. I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. Philippians 3:10-15

     Gracious Jesus, I don’t know how old Paul’s exact age when he wrote these impassioned words, maybe in his 60’s or 70’s. I do know, as he wrote, he was under house arrest and fastened to a Roman soldier (Acts 28). But it’s obvious that with an increase in age came an increase in gospel astonishment. He never grew bored with mining the unsearchable riches that are found only in you. He never tired of wrestling with the glorious implications of the gospel of the kingdom. 
     Jesus, make me this kind of a disciple. Give me this kind of insatiable hunger and maturity in the gospel. I’m so thankful that it’s your grasp of us and not our grasp of you that matters most.
     Sometimes I lift my hands in speechless wonder at the way you love us. Sometimes I shake fists at heaven like a pouting, demanding child. Sometimes I wring my hands in anxious unbelief, like a hapless orphan. But I live, and I will die, secure in your palms and written upon your heart.
     What do I want for the rest of my days, Jesus? I cannot say it any better than Paul. I want to know you more intimately than ever. This is the one thing I want more than anything else. I want to experience more of the power of your resurrection, for I have no power in myself to love others as you command. And, with trembling awe, I want to enter more fully into the fellowship of sharing in your sufferings—living out the birth pangs of new creation life in this broken world which groans for its release (Romans 8:18-25). Because you were raised, we too will be raised.
     Thank you for setting before us a prize to win, not a wage to earn. We never could have earned our way into a relationship with you and we cannot maintain it by our efforts either. We strain toward the goal, by grace alone through faith alone. Jesus, help us to have way done with lesser things and other ways. So very Amen, we pray, in your most kind and glorious name.