I want to know Christ

All I once held dear built my life upon
All this world reveres, and wars to own
All I once thought gain I have counted loss
Spent and worthless now, compared to this.

Knowing You, Jesus, knowing You
There is no greater thing
You're my all, You're the best
You're my joy, my righteousness
And I love you, Lord

Now my heart's desire is to know You more
To be found in You, and known as yours
To possess by faith what I could not earn
All surpassing gift of righteousness

Knowing You, Jesus, knowing You
There is no greater thing
You're my all, You're the best
You're my joy, my righteousness
And I love you, Lord

Oh to know the power of your risen life
And to know You in your suffering
To become like You in your death my Lord
So with You to live
And never die

Knowing you, Jesus, knowing you
There is no greater thing
You're my all, you're the best
You're my joy, my righteousness
And I love you, Lord

(by Graham Kendrick)

This song is especially meaningful to me because the lyrics are a paraphrase of a passage in Philippians, written by the Apostle Paul. Recently I have studied this book in depth, and it is so rich in thought-provoking wisdom and truth.

But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead

(Philippians 3:7-11).

Am I willing to surrender everything and suffer for the sake of Christ? Do I consider earthly things as "rubbish" compared to the glory of Christ? Do I strive for righteousness of my own, apart from the grace of God? Or do desire with all my being to know Christ? Lord, may this latter be so!