In our Christian lives it is important to answer the
question, “Does our love for God please Him?” “Is God honored by how we
love Him?” “Is He thrilled with how passionately we love Him?” If a
person is married, they want the way they love their spouse to thrill and
completely satisfy their spouse. How do we so love our God? Over the last
several months, The Word Revealed devotionals have covered many God honoring
ways to answer that question. We love God and grow daily in our love for
God when we listen to Him in His love letter to us on a regular basis. We
love God and grow daily in our love for God when we speak to Him in prayer with
honesty and passion. We love God and grow daily in our love for God when
we worship Him in a manner which communicates absolute love and
adoration. We love God and grow daily in our love for God when we
consciously die to self daily and take up our cross and victoriously follow
Him. But how do we love Him in the most basic and most important manner
which demonstrates our great love for Him? How do we love Him in a
fashion which communicates to Him and to the world that we are truly in love
with God?
Best Meal I’ve Ever Eaten
Picture a wonderful meal at a grandmother’s home. The
table is set with thought and care. The smells from the kitchen are
causing all the mouths in the house to water in great anticipation. Then
you are seated, and the food presented. Finally, you eat, and eat, and
eat some more. Everything is absolutely delicious! What a
feast! How do you honor and adore the grandmother that prepared and
served that wonderful meal? Do you explain that you weren’t really all
that hungry today? No, that would dishonor her. Do you eat until
you are completely full, stand up abruptly, and leave to meet a friend?
No, that would dishonor her as well. Do you say, “I’ll do the dishes grandma?”
While that would surely be appreciated, that would not fully honor the wonder
of that delicious meal and the one who prepared it. Do you say, “Thanks,
Grandma”? Thanking someone for anything given in love is always
appropriate, but that is not the most honoring thing that can be done.
The way to most fully honor that meal is to eat joyfully, to be gloriously
filled, and then sit back and say “Ahhhh! That was delicious! That was
fantastic! I am thrilled to have once again sat at your amazing table.
My thirst is quenched, and my hunger is completely satisfied. I want
nothing else. Thank you, I am completely satisfied!” John 6:35, “And Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of
life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me
shall never thirst.” Jesus promises to quench our thirst and
to satisfy our hunger.
Our Highest Calling
Our highest calling is to be delighted in our God.
The most meaningful expression of our love is to be fully satisfied in God and
God alone. This is not some trivial part of our Christian walk.
This is most basic and most important of all. We are called, we are
commanded, to be satisfied, thrilled, delighted with God. Psalm 37:4a, “Delight yourself also in the LORD.” Psalm
100:2a, “Serve the LORD with gladness.” Philippians 4:4, “Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice!”
The three passages just mentioned are all commands.
Commands to be delighted in God, to be glad in God, to be filled with rejoicing
concerning Who God is. But now we look to a passage that is a simple, yet
very profound, statement of fact. Psalm 63:3a, “Your
lovingkindness is better than life.” Knowing God and
being thrilled with God is better than life itself. That biblical truth
means that knowing God and being completely satisfied in Him is better than all
this world can offer. Even wonderful gifts from God are not God.
Gifts from God are gifts. Only God is God. Only God fully satisfies
our hearts and thrills our souls. And that means that as good and
wonderful as those gifts may be, they are not what totally satisfies our heart
and thrills our mind. A great investment with a phenomenal return, a
fulfilling job with wonderful benefits, happy children who honor their father
and mother, good trustworthy friends, a new boat, vibrant health, a happy
marriage, all these things can be a great blessing and a gift from God.
But these gifts are not what satisfy and thrill us at the most important
level. It is not God’s gifts that thrill and satisfy the most, it is God
Himself. And we show our love for Him most powerfully when we are
completely satisfied and thrilled in Him.
Those who have served on mission trips to impoverished
areas are normally shocked, amazed, and humbled by God’s people that have so few
of God’s physical gifts, yet they love Him so deeply. Joy is observed on
their faces as they hear of salvation. Their voices thrill as they sing
of the love of God and their love of Him. The satisfaction is evident in
their lives because His loving kindness is better than life itself. They
are living testimonies that God is what truly satisfies our heart and soul.
The Westminster Shorter Catechism presents its’ first
question, “What is the chief end of man?” The answer given reads, “Man’s
chief end is to glorify God, and enjoy him forever.” We most ably glorify
God when we enjoy Him, when we are satisfied in Him, when we are thrilled with
Him. The method to glorify Him is to be satisfied with Him and thrilled
with Him in everything that you do, 1 Corinthians 10:31, “Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you
do, do all to the glory of God.” We will do all to His glory when
we are thrilled with, and satisfied with, His Glory, His majesty, His love for
us, His power over all, His wisdom of all things, His righteousness, and His
perfection.
When we are thrilled with God and completely satisfied by
Him, we join hands with the Psalmist as he cries out, Psalm 73:25-26, “Whom have I in heaven but You? And there is none upon earth that I
desire besides You. My flesh and my
heart fail; But God is the strength of my
heart and my portion forever.” The psalmist captures our
passion when he says, Psalm 42:1, “As
the deer pants for the water brooks, So pants my soul for You, O God.”
The God that is the satisfaction of our heart fills us with joy forevermore,
Psalm 16:11b, “In Your presence is
fullness of joy; At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”
The farther we walk on the pathway of loving our Lord the more fully satisfied
we will be. The longer we love Him, the more thrilled we will
become. Let us together love the Lord our God with all our heart, and all
our soul, and all our mind, and all our strength.