A new girl, “Avery,” has been coming to the high school Bible study my daughter is involved in. Avery is a new Christian and often calls my daughter with questions about Jesus and living a life of faith. She’s excited to learn more and live for Jesus – it’s been a joy to witness their conversations. A couple of weeks ago, Avery told my daughter she “wants to do something big for the Lord.” She kept bringing this up to my daughter and was feeling like she “wasn’t doing enough for Jesus.”

I know Avery’s heart and motives were pure in wanting to do something big for Jesus. We often find ourselves in that dilemma with others: We need to keep doing things that make us desirable. It’s in the doing that we earn respect, position, acceptance, and even “love”. But that’s not how it works with Jesus.

I love the response my daughter gave to Avery: “It’s not about doing big things for the Lord. He firstly wants you – your attention, your worship, a relationship with you. He wants to be with you.”

Yes, He wants to be with you. As a matter of fact, the only time Jesus says He wants something in the whole Bible, it is in reference to His followers. He says in John 17:24, “Father, I want those You have given Me to be with Me where I am….” His desire is not what we can do for Him, but to be with Him. Jesus makes it clear that intimacy with His followers is His priority – and He wants our priority to be intimacy with Him.

I wasn’t surprised at Avery’s desire to do something big for Jesus. We often categorize our relationship with Jesus in a striving manner. We make resolutions to study Him more, we set goals to serve Him more, and to “be a better Christian.” We sign up for all the things at church and keep our schedule full of “Jesus” errands and volunteer work. I think it’s especially hard for Americans, in our boot-strap culture that champions busyness, to just be with Jesus. To be sure, a life with Jesus is going to produce holy fruit, but it is so important we recognize it is the relationship with Jesus that leads us to righteous deeds. Abiding in Jesus is a Believer’s priority – setting aside time to read God’s Word, pray, and listen. All else comes after. He wants us to operate out of our love for Him and know how much we are loved by Him.

I have often heard pastors joke about the apostle John’s ego as he referred to himself as the one Christ loved (John 13:23, 19:26, 20:2, 21:20). I disagree that John had an ego issue. I believe he was one of the first to rightly understand and verbalize how loved we are by Christ. Christ’s love – available to all – felt so intimate to John that he singled himself out as “the one”. That’s how personal and intimate Jesus is with those He loves.

Regarding John, The C.S. Lewis Institute asks and answers, “Why did John have primacy in the group? Because he alone appropriated the place of privilege that was available to all. It was love that drew John into a deeper intimacy with Jesus than the other apostles. Jesus loved them all, but John alone appropriated the title ‘the disciple whom Jesus loved’…. Mutual love and confidence are the keys to intimacy.”

Would you ever refer to yourself as “the one Jesus loves”? Pause and truly think about that question. Have you ever felt singled out by Jesus as the recipient of His unending love? Yes, He so loves the world, but He desires for You to know how much He loves you, just you. I vividly remember thinking “there’s no way Jesus loves everyone like He loves me.” His love for me is not about how great I am, but that He is the foundation of love.

Jesus wants an intimate, no space between, relationship with you. He says as much several times as He prays and reveals His heart for His followers in John 17: “Holy Father, protect them by the power of Your name… so that they may be one as we are one (verse 11, emphasis mine).” He continues, “May they also be in us so that the world may believe that You have sent me” (verse 21, emphasis mine). Jesus makes it abundantly clear that intimacy with His followers is His greatest desire. He does not want to be anyone’s acquaintance or afterthought. There is nothing casual about the relationship Jesus wants with His followers. He invites His followers to be one with Him.

Avery’s desire to do big things for Jesus is certainly relatable and admirable, but if you live a life of the beloved, big assignments will come from Jesus. Beyond recording His life, ministry, and resurrection, Jesus gave John two big assignments. And I believe it is because John lived as Jesus’ beloved that he was given these two particular assignments. First, as Jesus was hanging on the cross in agony, He entrusted His precious mother, Mary, to John’s care (John 19:26-27). After the crucifixion, John took Mary into his home. I cannot read this passage without tearing up. This was a tender assignment. Jesus gave it to the person who lived to be loved by Jesus, and He knew He could trust His mother to John’s care. Later, Jesus gave John the privileged assignment of seeing beyond the veil while he was in exile on the island of Patmos. Jesus showed John not only future things, but the end of time as we know it (see Revelation) and he recorded it for every future generation. John’s life was an intimate communion with Jesus that has been a blessing to every Believer for 2000 years.  

“Intimacy with God is the purpose of our lives. It’s why God created us. God created us for intimate fellowship with Himself… to know Him, love Him, and live our lives in an intimate relationship with Him” (Walking with God by John Eldredge).

Jesus wants more than for us to know about Him, or “do big things for Him”.  He wants us to encounter Him and abide in Him. He’s not a subject to be studied, or a righteous to-do list, but a Savior to be loved, loved by, and experienced fully. We are as close to Jesus as we want to be, but we can rest in His Word – and take Him at His Word – that He WANTS to be close to us.

“I have made You known to them, and will continue to make You known in order that the love You have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them” (Jesus praying to the Father, John 17:26). 

Dear Lord, Thank You for making it clear in Your Word that You want to be with Your children. Jesus, You are not some far off idea or character from mythology. You are reality. Jesus, may all who read this approach You as the lover of our souls. May we turn away from any suggestion that You have bigger things to care about than every detail of our lives and every hair on our heads (Luke 12:7). Thank You, Jesus for first loving us. We love You, too. We await Your return with glorious anticipation. Maranatha! Amen.