“...he wants wholehearted lovers who depend on his resurrection power every day of their lives.”

I sat at the Garden Tomb in Jerusalem for the Easter Sunday service and thought about how many people would love to be in my place that day. I was physically at the location where it is believed Jesus rose from the grave. 

As the service started and we began to worship, I heard a still small voice: “You need to end the relationship you are in.” I tried to ignore it not wanting my experience of Easter at the Garden Tomb to be ruined, but it came again: “Repent. Return to me.” I was annoyed. I couldn’t believe that I was in the most coveted place in Christianity on Easter and all I was going to remember about it was that God asked me to repent.

I was looking for some grand encounter with Jesus that morning but, as I look back, that's exactly what I got. The man who walked out of the grave mere feet from my chair came near to me and extended a fresh invitation. Resurrection power was at work restoring even the most minute things to wholeness. He wanted my whole heart. Not just a part. He would stop at nothing less. 

Jesus is always more interested in the tiny hidden things in our hearts than crowds and grandeur. More than a celebration about his ability to wake up from death, he wants wholehearted lovers who depend on his resurrection power every day of their lives.