The Puritan John Flavel invites us to ask the following questions about our desires for Christ:-

‘Are they ARDENT? Has Christ the supreme place in our hearts? Do we esteem all things but dung that we may win Christ and be found in him?

Are they UNIVERSAL? Is everything about Christ desirable in our eyes? The hypocrite is for a divided Christ. The believer loves his government and his grace, his sovereignty and his mercy, his Lordship and his priesthood.

Do our desires after Christ lead us to EFFORT, to use all the means of grace to accomplish his will? He is revealed in his Word; do we read it? He is preached in the gospel; do we hear it? He will be found of those who seek him: do we seek him?

Are our desires after Christ PERMANENT or only a sudden fit of emotion, fear and impulse? If our hearts and our longing for union with him are a work of grace, we will only be satisfied when we awake with his likeness. Nothing that this world affords can possibly take us from this goal

Do our desires after Christ spring from a DEEP SENSE OF OUR NEED of Christ? Has conviction opened our eyes to see our misery, to feel our burden of sin, to understand our inability and to make us sensible that the remedy lies only in the Lord Jesus Christ? Bread and wine are made necessary by hunger and thirst. Christ becomes precious to those who need him.’

(The Fountain of Life)