Do We Intend to See Jesus?

One of the reasons we fail to regularly read God’s Word is that we don’t plan to. We get up day after day, and we haven’t decided where to read. Pressing duties soon sidetrack us, and another day passes without significant time with an open Bible. If we want renewal in our devotional lives badly enough, we will make sufficient plans. 

William Law’s pointed words are helpful: “If you will here stop and ask yourself why you are not as pious as the primitive Christians were, your own heart will tell you that it is neither through ignorance nor inability, but purely because you never thoroughly intended it.” 

Zacchaeus “thoroughly intended” to see Jesus so he planned ahead when Jesus was coming to his town. Being a “wee little man,” “He ran before, and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him” (Luke 19:3). He could have had plenty of excuses—“there were too many people; I was too short”—but what a rich blessing he would have missed.

His planning paid off. Jesus looked up in that tree and called, “Zacchaeus, quick, come down! I must be a guest in your home today.” Jesus notices when we plan our days around “seeing” Him so He can be our guest. Often we find that the more regularly we arrange our day around seeing Him, the more we get done. Instead of crowding our day, it seems to ease the congestion! 

Give us wisdom, Jesus, to order our days around You.

“Wisdom is supreme; therefore get wisdom. Though it cost all you have, get understanding” (Proverbs 4:7).