Do You Love Him?

March 6 (John 21:15)

When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?”  (ESV)

Jesus asks Peter if he loves Him more than the other disciples do because in Matthew 26:33 Peter had claimed that he did.  Jesus could well ask us the same question, but He might mean it differently.  If He asked it of me, He would likely gesture toward my job, my writing, my responsibilities, my time on the Internet, my time watching television, my time reading other books.  “Do you love me more than these?”

How many things get between us and our Lord?  At times there are so many I can barely see Him.  Do I truly love Him more?  If I did, then a log of how I spent the hours of my day would probably look very different than it does.

Look back over one day and ask where Jesus was in each of the things you did.  Was He a part of your dealings at the bank, the gas station, or the grocery store?  Was He involved in your business?  Could you see Him when you came home and relaxed?  We may want to answer with Peter that we love Jesus more, but our actions may suggest otherwise.

The prayer this week is John Donne’s Holy Sonnet XIV.

Batter my heart, three-person’d God; for you

As yet but knock; breathe, shine, and seek to mend;

That I may rise, and stand, o’erthrow me, and bend

Your force, to break, blow, burn, and make me new.

I, like an usup’d town, to another due,

Labour to admit you, but O, to no end.

Reason, your viceroy in me, me should defend,

But is captived, and proves weak or untrue.

Yet dearly I love you, and would be loved fain,

But am betroth’d unto your enemy;

Divorce me, untie, or break that knot again,

Take me to you, imprison me, for I,

Except you enthrall me, never shall be free,

Nor ever chaste except you ravish me.

Copyright © 2016 by Steven R. Perkins