The first question (3)

Going to the core
But we must let this specific question do its work with us.  So many questions asked by Jesus are personally intended.  And this question needs to be taken seriously wherever we are on the Christian journey, 'What do you want?' goes to the core of everything that we are living for. As Jesus keeps asking us 'What are you living for? he longs for us to wake up to realize he is saying: 'Just how much do we want me'? 

Like many spiritual writers Oswald Chambers sets the stakes high and he hit me hard in one of his meditations. He asks what it is that we want.  Some wants do not require Jesus he says. If we want to stop wrong-doing we don't need Jesus;  if we want to live honestly we don't need Jesus. 
But when the heart cries out 'I want, God knows , I want, that Jesus Christ should do in me all He said he would do'. How many of us 'want' like that? Do you want, more than you want your food, more than you want your sleep, more than you want anything under heaven, or in heaven, that Jesus Christ might so identify you with Himself that you are His first and last and for ever?  God grant that the great longing desire of your heart may begin to awaken as it has never done'.

I think Jesus keeps asking me this question because with each new day I know I must be challenged again about what I really want in my faith walk with Jesus Christ. I need to space and time to keep reflecting: What am I living for? What do I want more than anything else?  What are my honest motives right now?   Because Jesus wants to identify me with Himself and to go another step forward as a whole-life disciple.

It does not happen instantly. These disciples will need three intense years and a lifetime beyond that. I must really want this prayer relationship to deepen at the center of my existence.  It's that important to answer clearly!