Jesus.  What a beautiful word, isn’t it?  A name that can stop traffic, truly.  Whether we are conscious of it or not, all of us are subject to the authority rendered this Man, even to the authority of His name.  Yet do we understand who He really is?  My belief is that we cannot know Him fully, that our joyous discovery of Him will last an eternity – that is how DEEP and VAST the knowledge of Him is!  Let’s begin our journey today.

My father spoke a great blessing to me last year, one that reverberates in my thinking and causes me to press forward in uncertain times like now.  He spoke over my life truth gleaned from Hebrews 11, that I should expect God’s blessings because I have been diligently seeking Him, in accordance with verse 6:

But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

A famous psalm says that if we delight ourselves in the Lord, He will give us the desires of our heart.  This week it dawned on me that the desire of our heart is truly to delight in God!  This psalm is redundant: If we delight ourselves in the Lord, He’ll give us our heart’s desire — because delighting in Him is our heart’s desire!  By basking in Him, our hearts will find their contentment.

For years I have wondered when abundant life would be mine, when overflowing joy would be my daily experience as He promises.  I began to believe that, in the words of Dave Barnes: “Love was kept from me like a secret, and I swore that I was through until you…”

But His love is real.  It is alive, and His heart burns for me to return His affections.   For years His love for me was unrequited as I chased other ‘lovers’ seeking the adoration only He can give.  But as I grow in delighting in Him, I’m beginning to understand and say (as the lovestruck bride shouts in Song of Songs), “I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine!”