TEXT
John 12:20–26
KEY VERSE
“Sir, we would see Jesus.”
John 12:21, KJV
CONTEXT
Some Greeks had come to Jerusalem to worship at the feast. They approached Philip with a simple request: “Sir, we would see Jesus.” Their request came at a significant moment. Jesus was approaching the cross, and in the verses that follow, He speaks about a corn of wheat falling into the ground and dying.
REFLECTION
“Sir, we would see Jesus.”
I wonder what it would look like if those words described our hearts today.
Because there is so much competing for our attention.
Something is always calling for us to look. Just as our faces are different, so are our interests, burdens, and distractions. From notifications to conversations, deadlines, people, problems, desires, and fears about tomorrow, our attention is constantly being bombarded.
And whatever keeps receiving our attention slowly begins to occupy our hearts.
That is why we can love Jesus and still become distracted from Him.
We can wake up thinking about everything we need to do before we think about the One who gave us another day.
We can spend the day chasing things we believe will satisfy us, only to lie down at night feeling strangely empty.
And sometimes the problem is not that we have stopped loving Jesus.
It is that too many other things have become more interesting to us.
That should trouble us.
Because Jesus does not want to be one more thing competing for our attention.
He is worthy of being the centre of it.
The Greeks said, “We would see Jesus.”
There is something worth recovering in that desire.
To want to see Him in His Word.
To want to notice Him in the middle of an ordinary day.
To want to know what pleases Him before asking what pleases us.
To want His presence more than the feeling of being entertained.
To want Him even when He has not answered the question we brought to Him.
We have been looking everywhere: at what we do not have, what someone else has, what might happen, what happened yesterday, and what everyone thinks of us.
And our hearts are exhausted from staring at everything except Jesus.
What do we keep in mind when we go to church, when we turn the pages of our Bibles, when we kneel beside our beds to pray?
Do we still do these things simply because they have become our routines?
I want Him.
I want my heart to become interested in Him again, for His voice to matter more to me, His presence to become more precious to me, and my eyes to remain fixed on Him until the things that have consumed me lose their power over me.
Because there will always be something else asking for our attention.
But Jesus must remain our greatest desire.
So perhaps this is the prayer we need today:
“Lord, with everything competing for my attention, teach me to want You again.”
KEY TAKEAWAY
What continually captures our attention will eventually shape our desires, so let Jesus remain the One we most want to see.
PRAYER
Lord Jesus, pull my heart away from everything that has captured it, and make me desire You above everything else.
TODAY’S CHALLENGE
Read John 12:20–26 slowly. Then spend a few quiet minutes before God with one prayer: “Lord, I want to see Jesus.”
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