How can I, as a Christian who believes the Gospel and affirms orthodoxy, be compelled to genuinely desire God and the kingdom of God enough to become a true disciple, one who is willing to consider all things loss in comparison with knowing and loving Jesus?
The same Holy Spirit who renewed my heart and assured me of his calling gives me the desire to seek God, his kingdom, and his righteousness. This desire prevails over conflicting desires, so that I am able to consider all things loss for the sake of Christ.
The only way I or anyone else can “be compelled” to desire God and to devote myself as a disciple of Jesus, willing to lose all things for the sake of gaining him, is by beholding the light of the glory of God as revealed in the face of Jesus (2 Cor. 4:6). Seeing God as he has revealed himself in creation, in Scripture, and preeminently in his Son, Jesus Christ, is the ultimate way to knowing and loving him above all else.
Ultimately, it’s a work of God’s Spirit to ignite our hearts so that we come to love Jesus and seek His kingdom. We can put ourselves in the proper posture for obedience, whether through certain practices, habits, our life in community with fellow Christians, our openness to His Word and to prayer, but we need the Spirit to fill us and to transform us. That desire should lead us to a holy desperation on the Spirit to work, and should put us on our knees in prayer and with Bibles open to hear God speak to us.
Fides quaerens intellectum † Faith seeking understanding † Aithfay eekingsay understandingya
