She broke her bottle with a certainty that brought a gasp through the room. Like diamonds generously scattered along a path, a perposterous waste to all watching. And when pressed and charged by the angry brothers, horrified at her ability to waste her future so carelessly, her piercing eyes must have answered without a word. He is my future, and not this bottle of perfume (Jn. 12:3-7).Paul in His life statement said the same. My gain is Him, the rest is rubbish. All my future is wrapped up in this one Man. If I gain Him, I have all. If I lose Him but have all the rest, I have nothing (Phil. 3:7-9).

Where the Heart Finds Safety

And here I find where the human heart finds its safety and true rest, rare in history as it is. Here in that burning of desiring One Thing above all else, that casting of our anchor into one sole place, our every hope and desire set upon one Person. Here the heart is finely set in safety. All else can be taken or all else can be given yet the contentment remains steadfast and unmoved (Phil. 4:11 - 13).

We know the claim well: Jesus is my everything, my one desire.We've sung the songs boisterously: Take the whole world but give me Jesus. And, I’d rather have Jesus than anything.

These are common anthems. Yet the reality of them is as rare as diamonds. In fact, much of the Lord’s fashioning of our days, our circumstances, our highs and our lows are to take these words from the realm of wishful thinking to the rock of true reality. For as common as such statements are, rare in history and scarce in the earth are the hearts that own these truths to the innermost parts.

The Testing of Our Desires

Until the day we see Jesus, life is a testing and a refining of our true treasures, and with them, where our affections and hopes lie. Sometimes these testings come with such a blow and force, knocking the wind from us with their surprise. But such is the nature of a test; revealing what lies beneath the surface.

At times, the Lord allows these difficult circumstances or blows to pull the ground from beneath us and we find ourselves frefalling, grasping for something to grab hold of in our fall. Questions arise in the sting of loss, as we feel robbed of many of the other things of life - really good and beautiful things. We feel the loss of all the secondaries, and question the Lord if it's right to let them go. Yet in the time of testing, answers are few, or it wouldn’t be a test.

Until He is Our One Desire

These testings are not for the landing of all our questions in all of the desires of life. They are for the recasting of our anchor into that one singular Source and reseting of our affections upon our First Love (Rev. 2:4). It’s time to refocus our singular gaze upon the One Thing we’ve desired, and re-break that bottle of our inheritance upon the One Person who is our future.

One thing I have desired of the Lord, That will I seek... Ps. 27:4

If we do this, then we pass our test, allowing the very pressures that test us to produce in us that which cannot be taken from us and finding the rest and safety that comes therein (Lk. 10:42). Our hearts will begin to shine with a radiance that even stormy days can’t cast a shadow over. Our Treasure, set in the heavens, and our affections set upon Jesus, will be sure and untouchable (Matt. 6:20). And we will join those voices of rarest strain, scattering our diamonds and casting our crowns, counting all else as loss, and singing in truth and not just in word,“He is my future! He is my gain! He is my one desire, my treasure, and my everything!"