Enjoying Jesus
Enjoying Jesus: Experience the Presence and Kindness of the Son of God in Everyday Life
By: Tim Chester
“Take steps towards him in love and obedience, and he’ll make his home with you and transform your heart.”
When I saw the title for this book I was really excited to read it. Jesus has always been part of my life, which is a blessing, but it also comes with certain stagnant feelings at times. I wanted to rejuvenate my relationship with Christ in a way that influenced my day-to-day life.
In that way, I’m not entirely sure if this book accomplished that.
I still recommend it— I have no issue with anything he wrote in the book. I think many readers will find it really helpful.
For me personally, for whatever reason, I found myself really distracted reading it. Certain chapters were more engaging than others, but I often found myself re-reading the same paragraph over and over again until my brain comprehended that I was reading something. I don’t know if ‘bored’ is the right word, but it just wasn’t quite the read I was expecting.
And that’s partly on me. I can’t always go into a book with my own expectations and not a willingness to see what God has for me in it. I could have done a better job of staying focused. And to his credit, the section headings throughout the book are really helpful in getting back on track with what points he was trying to make.
Yet, when I was almost finished with the book, I had an experience that really clarified something for me.
At the end of every chapter Chester includes an action step and some reflection questions. The reflection questions weren’t super profound or deep and I’m not sure how much discussion would really come from them. The action step often required imagination.
Imagine you are in the room with Jesus, imagine Jesus praying for you, imagine what it will be like to see Jesus face to face. I appreciate this exercise and I think it’s important, but I struggled to do it.
However, my husband and I finally got around to starting the series The Chosen which is a depiction of Jesus’ life. I know we’re late to the game, but we’ve watched a few episodes now.
And I will tell you, those three episodes did more for me than this entire book. I don’t know if it’s right for me to say that, but in terms of visualizing Jesus and my relationship to him, that show (at least as far as we’ve watched) really kind of nailed it for me.
Chester’s book tries to use words to remind you how Jesus sees you and how praying to him and engaging with him pleases him. But, for one example, in The Chosen, there is this scene where Jesus is surrounded by children and he asks them if they know a certain prayer. They all start reciting it. The look that Jesus has for those children praying (to him) and speaking Scripture is hard to put into words, but it speaks a thousand of them. You see it and you just realize the compassion Christ has for you. It captured the intimacy of a relationship with him.
Perhaps Chester’s book will do that for many readers. For whatever reason, my heart needed the visual more than the words. Maybe I’ve inundated myself with so many words about it that they’d lost their meaning to me. Maybe I just needed a different picture.
It was just that scene that hit me like- ‘Oh, this is what Tim Chester is trying to do in his book! This is what he’s trying to get me to recognize and reflect on.’ Jesus is real and transcendent and we can be in true relationship with him. It’s easy to lose sight of that and feel like God is far away and too busy and important for us. This scene reoriented my perspective.
Even as I say that, I would be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge that there were several things that resonated with me in the book as well.
There are 14 chapters each detailing a different attribute of God or gift he has given us and how we can enjoy it. His presence, his compassion, his shelter, his touch, his vitality, his glory, his voice, his connection, his anger, his intercession, his reign, and his wealth.
What stood out to me is this overarching idea that as Christians, we want Jesus, and we have Jesus. He gave the illustration of a bride on her wedding day. Why is she getting married? Hopefully she doesn’t answer she just wants his money, or the security, or the house. No, she just wants him. I remember that feeling from my own wedding day.
As the church, we are the bride of Christ, our life is about wanting him. And he is all we need.
No matter what happens in this life, no matter what worst-case scenario flits in my mind from day to day, I have all I ever need— Jesus Christ.
I thought this quote he included from Thomas Watson was powerful:
“If God be our God, then, though we may feel the blows of evil, we do not feel the sting… if we lose our name, it is written in the book of life. If we lose our liberty, our conscience is free. If we lose our belongings, we possess the Pear of price. If we meet storms, we know where to put into harbor… God is an infinite ocean of blessedness, and there is enough in him to fill us all… Believers may lose everything else, but we cannot lose our God. God is ours from everlasting in election, and to everlasting in glory.”
This book is essentially a reminder of all we have in Christ and that is a good thing to be reminded of.
A few other points I found interesting:
His chapter on the anger of Jesus was interesting to read because we usually think of anger as a bad thing, and truly, we rarely get it right. But Jesus’ anger was righteous. Chester points out that we see in Scripture when Jesus is the most anger it’s usually because of two things: passion for God’s glory or his love for the afflicted. And that tells us exactly what we need to care the most about: God’s glory and the afflicted. Are those things that get us worked up? Is that what enrages us the most?
In his chapter about the delight of Jesus he talks about the Song of Solomon and how a lot of people don’t realize that it’s not just a picture of romantic love, but it’s a picture of Jesus and his bride, the church. That Jesus enjoys his time with us. He looks forward to being with us and hearing our voice. The song talks about ‘foxes’ that try to get in the way of their love, and how we should try to catch our own foxes that hinder our ability to be with Jesus and delight in his presence and his delight in us.
In his chapter about the glory of Jesus he talks about FOMO. There is a lot of people who view following Christ as ‘missing out’ on everything. Sobriety means we can’t have wild nights out. Generosity means we can’t have the fanciest car or the biggest house. Service means we put others’ needs ahead of our own. Chastity means we can’t have all the sex everyone else is having before marriage. What an empty life! they might think. And maybe sometimes we think it too. Our devotion to following Christ might make us feel like we’ve lost something or we’ve missed out on something. But Chester reminds us that we share in Christ’s glory. As Paul said, “to live is Christ, to die is gain.” In Christ we have a much more full life because we enjoy him forever. He surpasses all else. He is the pearl of great price. We should sell it all to have him. He could never disappoint. I like this quote:
“Life with Jesus is not an empty life. Yes, following Jesus can involve sacrifice. We have to give up sinful pleasures. We have to say no to temptation. We have to deny ourselves as we serve others in love. Our model is the cross, where Jesus offered up his life for us, embracing its suffering and shame. This is our calling as Christians. But it’s never an empty life; it’s an adventure with him. The pleasures we give up are more than replaced by the glory of Jesus. Christ is fullness, and he offers fullness.”
(and further, the ‘pleasures’ we give up are not the pleasures we think they are. They won’t satisfy. Those ‘pleasures’ are really what define an empty life.)
One last comment on the book. He begins his book with a chapter titled ‘Mike and Emma’s Tuesday Afternoon.’ It was a narrative about Mike and Emma and various struggles they had that day. This is the illustration and foundation that Chester builds on to show us how to put these chapters into practice. In between the chapter teaching and the action/questions, we get a snippet from Mike and Emma’s day with an extra paragraph added to show how they reoriented that experience or struggle around the attribute or gift from God.
I thought this was a really good way to show readers how this can be applied in real life. It identified relatable interactions and thoughts that we might have and showed how we can adjust our thinking and look to Jesus during those times.
Recommendation
I do recommend this book. I’ve stated that it didn’t quite do what I was hoping it would do, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s not a worthy book to read. There are lots of good things in here and I think if I read it again in another season of life I might have a completely different experience with it.
It wasn’t my favorite read of the month, but I won’t disregard it or keep it from anyone else.
We should all be enjoying Jesus, and this book may be what you need to remind yourself of all the ways and reasons that we can delight in the Lord every day.
**Received a copy via The Good Book Company in exchange for an honest review**
This book just released September 1, 2024. You can order a copy of this book using my affiliate link below.
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