As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it stands in Scripture: “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.” 1 Pet. 2:4-6
Dear heavenly Father, I used to think that “coming to Jesus” was a phrase whose meaning is exhausted when we first trust your Son to be our Savior. For sure, that is the most glorious and essential “come to Jesus meeting” we’ll ever have. How I praise you for showing me how much I needed your Son, and for giving me the faith to trust Jesus-plus-nothing for my salvation.
It’s obvious to me now, however, that the whole Christian life is about coming to Jesus. We need Jesus today as much as the first day he entered our lives, and you placed us in him. In fact, we’ll never exhaust our need for what Jesus alone can give. We’ll forever discover more and more reasons to give him the worship, adoration, and praise of which he alone is worthy.
Indeed, Lord Jesus, this one portion of Scripture gives us amble reasons to abandon ourselves to you today; for you are the life-giving living Stone for your beloved people; the precious cornerstone of the living temple called the body of Christ; the rock of refuge that’s higher than I am (Ps. 61:2-3); the rock from which God gave water in the wilderness in Moses’ day (1 Cor. 10:1-4). You are the honey-giving rock of whom Asaph spoke (Ps. 81:16), and you are Daniel’s stone, cut from a mountain by the hands of God, which will become an everlasting kingdom of redemption and restoration (Dan. 2:36-45).
Lord Jesus, we exalt you and delight in you. The more precious you become to us, the more we watch our shame melt away. The more we see you for who you really are, the more we see all other precious currencies as fool’s gold. The more we come to you, the more we realize that it’s you who is always coming to us first.
Lord Jesus, we come to you right now—we come bringing our emptiness to the fountain of your fullness. We bring our brokenness to the storehouse of your kindness. We bring our weakness in the great assurance of your endless mercies. We come to you right now for enough gospel manna to meet the demands of this one day. So very Amen we pray, in your precious and shame-freeing name.
