King ~ I'd Rather Have Jesus ~ Part 1

I’d rather have Jesus than silver or gold;
I’d rather be His than have riches untold;
I’d rather have Jesus than houses or lands;
I’d rather be led by His nail-pierced hand

Refrain:
Than to be the king of a vast domain
And be held in sin’s dread sway;
I’d rather have Jesus than anything
This world affords today.

I’d rather have Jesus than men’s applause;
I’d rather be faithful to His dear cause;
I’d rather have Jesus than worldwide fame;
I’d rather be true to His holy name

He’s fairer than lilies of rarest bloom;
He’s sweeter than honey from out the comb;
He’s all that my hungering spirit needs;
I’d rather have Jesus and let Him lead

~*~*~*~* 

I was sitting in our music/library room sipping a cup of tea, sunshine pouring into the room, and going thru my normal Bible study for the morning. It started out great. My mind was open for God to teach me whatever He wanted, I had a cup of my favorite tea in my hand and the sun was shining. Who could 
have asked for more? 

Well, as I started going through my study, this song (I’d Rather Have Jesus) jumped out at me. The man who wrote the study had put the song in there, and I have always loved it, but this time was different. There was one line that jumped out at me. "Than to be the king of a vast domain."

Two days ago, I was talking to a friend of mine and we were just having some fun and started play acting. He said that he wanted to be the King of Awesomeness. So, I 'crowned' him. :P After that he started giving out ‘rules’ to his ‘subjects’. The first one was to have a national holiday that would honor the King of Awesomeness and the second one was to take a nap. *laughs* After his ‘nap’, he sat up, took of the ‘crown’ and said, “Being  king is boring.” 

You might be thinking, “Why would being a king be boring? I have always wanted to be a princess or a queen, or something like that.” 

Well, after reading/singing this hymn, I realized that being a King, Queen, Princess or Prince, would only be fun for a time, but then would get boring. You would always have people bowing down to you. You would always have to watch your p’s and q’s. People would look up to you because you had authority over them. Even though the dresses would be pretty, or it would be fun to live in a castle, things would get boring. 

This guy was ‘King Awesomeness’ (wouldn’t that be fun to be king over? ;P). But when King, he could no longer be himself. Having all the power could be fun up to a point, but there would be no one telling YOU what to do. Wouldn’t that get boring? I know I would surely get bored. 

Wouldn’t you want Jesus than to be King of... awesomeness or of a vast domain? Everything that is talked about in the song is what a king would have within his grasp. Silver and gold, riches untold, houses and lands, men’s applause, and worldwide fame. A king would have all of that but one, Jesus. He would be rich in the world’s eyes, so therefore, he would not need Jesus.

If you don’t know Jesus, being a king would get boring very quickly. But if you know and love Jesus, you have become a Prince or Princess, of more than you could imagine. You might not be a king in the world’s eyes, but you have Jesus and that makes you richer than a king in the world.