Seek More than Just a Little Jesus 

During a recent road trip to preach at a church in another state, I stopped to fill up my vehicle with gas. While I was pumping the fuel, a lady walked by me, then turned around and spoke. She asked if she could give me a little Jesus today. In her outstretched hand was a tiny figurine created with all those features we commonly associate with the physical appearance of Jesus. I remembered seeing those small depictions of the Savior being promoted as a way to either begin conversations with people about spiritual matters or simply to leave one setting somewhere as a reminder to people of the presence of Jesus. I appreciated this woman’s boldness and effort to reach out to a stranger. I thanked her for the offer, but told her that I already knew Jesus and had Him in my heart, so maybe she could pass it along to someone else.

As I thought about that encounter later, another aspect of it came to mind. It had to do with the question she asked concerning “a little Jesus”. I understand and appreciate what she meant by that, but it also reminded me of something we need to be careful of concerning our relationship with the Lord. We all need Jesus in our lives. However, some people only want a little bit of Jesus in their lives. They want only enough of Him to get them into heaven. They want only enough of Jesus to have a measure of peace with God, but not enough to significantly alter their lives. They want just enough of Jesus that they can claim to be a Christian yet continue to live the way they want to live. They want Jesus to be in their life to some extent, but not be the One in control of their lives. They still want to call the shots themselves.

Jesus doesn’t intend for us to have only a little of Him. We need to have Him in His fullness. He is not content to simply be a guest in the home of our heart. He calls us to yield ourselves to Him as the Master of the house. He is not satisfied with being one of the various parts of our life that we value – alongside of our families, our careers, our sports teams, and other significant interests. He rightfully demands to be our one and only God. He is to be our top priority. We are not just to make Him and His kingdom one of the things we seek after, but we are to seek Him first, above all else.

In Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, you get no sense of believers only possessing a small part of Jesus. Paul’s prayer was for Jesus’ followers to “be filled with all the fullness of God” (3:19). A little later he states that part of God’s purpose for us is to attain “to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” (4:13). Paul also affirms that Jesus didn’t send His Holy Spirit into the world so that we could just get a taste of Him. No, we are told to “be filled with the Spirit” (5:18). 

If we are settling for having only a little of Jesus in our lives, we are missing out on the blessings of His fullness and we are failing to fulfill God’s purpose for us. It could even be an indication that we may not truly have Him in our lives at all. Some of us need to quit focusing on how little of Jesus we can possess while still being acceptable to God, and instead become intent on pursuing more of Him and everything He wants to do in our lives.