Satisfying Love

If you feel empty, unsatisfied, you need to experience the love of God.

Recently my wife and I drove 30 minutes to a forest preserve and took a two-mile walk. The walk lasted through lunchtime, so afterward we decided to get lunch somewhere nearby. I checked the map in my phone, and we selected a Mexican restaurant. The restaurant was small and tucked into a corner of a struggling shopping center. The sign in the window said, “Authentic Mexican food.” By the time we sat down at a table and ordered, we were famished.

I ordered a chicken burrito, and we had guacamole and chips, jalapenos and pickled carrots before the main course arrived. The sign in the window was accurate, for the food was like homemade. Everything was fresh and delicious. My burrito was large, but I ate it all. When we eventually walked out of the restaurant, I felt mucho bueno. That meal literally was a happy meal.

The satisfaction loop

One’s soul goes through repeating cycles of hunger, eating, and satisfaction. The loops can be with food, with work and rest, prayer, intellectual learning, connection with friends and family. In all these areas we know what it’s like to experience deep satisfaction. Your soul says, Ahhhhhhh, that was good. I’m at peace. I’m full.

According to Psalm 63:3, the greatest satisfaction the soul can have comes from experiencing the love of God. It says, “Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you.” It appears that the psalmist David was trying to find a comparison to say that God’s love brings ultimate satisfaction. He may have gone in his mind through a list of satisfying things: Your love is better than seeing a beautiful sunset. Your love is better than fresh grilled lamb. Your love is better than being intimate with my wife. Then he realized that experiencing God’s love is better than any of those things. In fact, it’s better than all of them put together. And the best way he could find to say that was, your love is better than life itself.

Full satisfaction in God’s love

God’s love is better than anything in life, than everything in life put together. It’s so great that it’s even better than being alive itself. Which is a paradox, of course, because you can’t experience God’s love without being alive. But just being alive is good and wonderful, when we are in our right mind, not complaining or depressed or afraid or misguided by other bad attitudes. When we are thinking clearly, we realize that just being alive is a great pleasure and gift.

We’ve all heard people who somehow sidestepped death from something like sickness or a car accident, and through that event they came to appreciate every day the gift of life, all by itself. Just being alive is deeply satisfying. So, the psalmist is saying God’s love is even better than that. Knowing God’s love is the most satisfying experience available to the human soul.

A prayer guide for thinking about God’s love

That’s one reason why for nearly a year I’ve been posting articles on that theme. That’s why as I now finish the theme, I plan to give in a forthcoming post a summary outline of the ground we have covered, with Scriptures and declarations you can make in prayer and meditation. So that as you keep calling these truths to mind, your hungry soul can say, Ahhhhhh.

God is love (1 John 4:8, 16). Your soul’s greatest satisfaction matches the fundamental nature of God. That’s not a coincidence. It’s one more example that confirms you were created by and for God.

Not you?

You might read this post and feel disappointed, however. You might feel that meditating prayerfully about God’s love doesn’t bring you that much pleasure and satisfaction. My counsel to you is, be patient and ask God to teach you about his love and to reveal it to you (Romans 5:1–5; Ephesians 3:14–19). Some people get hold of this easily, but for a host of reasons others don’t. If you persist in asking and seeking, you will have a dawning of God’s love in your soul and find the satisfaction you cannot have in any created thing.

Our way and God’s way

Our way: The fallen soul seeks ultimate satisfaction in created things, rather than God. Following this course is like a person who is adrift in the middle of the ocean in a lifeboat, desperately thirsty under a burning sun, all fresh water long gone, who finally reaches over the side and drinks salt water, which only exacerbates dehydration and kills the person who drinks it.

God’s way: God made us for himself, for divine love, and the soul is always thirsty and hungry until it learns to feast fully on the love of God.

Life principle: We do not automatically know how to experience God’s love continually. We must learn to love him and learn to comprehend his love.

February 26, 2018February 3, 2018

When You Long for Happiness

All people want lasting happiness. But we find sustained joy in the place least expected.

In this series on practicing God’s presence we have seen the recurring idea of joy. There is a deep connection between practicing God’s presence and joy.

The pursuit of lasting happiness

This is an important subject to explore further because happiness is what we’re all after. We pursue joy in innumerable ways, but in the end that is what we’re seeking. We do things because they make us happy.

So what we need to be convinced of is that practicing God’s presence leads to the ultimate experience of joy. The people on earth who practice God’s presence best are the ones who have the most happiness.

In particular if you struggle with sadness or depression, learning to practice God’s presence better is crucial for you.

What King David learned

David, speaking of himself in the third person, says in Psalm 21:6–7, “You make him most blessed forever; you make him glad with the joy of your presence. For the king trusts in the LORD, and through the steadfast love of the Most High he shall not be moved.”

David here refers to “the joy of your presence.” He says God’s presence makes him glad. And then he explains further: “For the king trusts in the LORD.” There is a connection between God’s presence and our trust in him. When we practice God’s presence we trust him more.

Security

One of the strongest drives most people have is the pursuit of security. We live in a dangerous world. We can lose anything and everything we value in a moment. Our health, job, money to pay for housing and food and other needs, family, friendships and so on—all are terribly vulnerable. And we know it, so we worry, fear, and feel insecure.

But notice David’s sense of security: “through the steadfast love of the Most High he shall not be moved.” David says with perfect confidence that he shall not be moved.

And he bases that confidence in God’s steadfast love. Ultimately your sense of security can only come from knowing God’s steadfast love, his covenant-based love, for you. It comes from knowing that steadfast love not just with your head, but with your heart, because trust is a heart thing.

And you know God’s steadfast love with your heart when you practice his presence.

Try it today. Practice God’s presence faithfully throughout the day and see if by the end of the day you do not have more trust in God’s steadfast love, a greater sense of security, and ultimately more joy.

Those who walk closest to God are the happiest people in the world.

December 25, 2017February 26, 2018

Practicing God’s Presence: The Happy Rewards

“Practicing God’s presence is one secret to experiencing all the New Testament promises.”

To grow in our knowledge of God and his ways we must learn to practice God’s presence. This is how we enjoy a personal relationship with God, rather than merely know facts about him.

The normal Christian life

Moreover, practicing God’s presence is foundational to the Spirit-filled life taught in the New Testament. It enables us to have the mind of Christ (1 Cor. 2:16). It makes us aware of him throughout the day no matter what we are doing. We will have the fruits of the Holy Spirit in every situation (Gal 5:22–23). It is how we fellowship with God all day.

By practicing God’s presence we obey the Scriptures that tell us to “pray continually” and “give thanks in all circumstances” and “rejoice in the Lord always” and “do all to the glory of God” and “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength” and “cast all your anxiety on him” and “abide in Jesus” and “walk in the Holy Spirit.” (1 Thess. 5:17–18; Phil. 4:4; 1 Cor. 10:31; Mark 12:30; 1 Peter 5:7; John 15:4; Gal. 5:25)

The secret of overcomers

Practicing God’s presence is one secret to experiencing all the New Testament promises to those who are a victorious new creation in Christ.

If we are persistently sad, angry, fearful, and discontent, we are not practicing God’s presence. When we regularly feel empty and dry, we are not practicing his presence. If we often feel guilty, distant, and disconnected from the Lord, if we live in continual defeat before some sin or addiction, we are not practicing God’s presence.

God’s presence brings joy. Supernatural peace. Faith and confidence. Satisfaction, contentment, and fullness.

God’s presence is life. His presence is living water and bread from heaven. His presence gives strength and victory.

As we practice God’s presence, we sense his love and gracious intentions. We feel close to him and can bring everything to him moment by moment. He is at our right hand, ever before and around us.

And even when we feel nothing, we will know he is there and hears us. We will not have a sense of doubt and disconnection that makes us feel something is wrong between us and God. We can practice God’s presence even when we do not feel his presence.

Let me say that again because if you miss that you will often feel like a failure. We can successfully practice God’s presence even when we do not feel his presence. (More on that in upcoming posts)

So practicing God’s presence is one secret to the abundant Christian life.

Practicing God’s presence is well within reach

Thankfully it is not hard to do. It is not just for super saints or longtime believers. Even a new Christian can learn it.

Though not hard, it must be learned. We must build new mental habits, which take time.

If you put the teachings in this series into practice, in one or two months you will be well on your way to a transformed life. And then for the rest of your life you will keep learning more.

You will be stronger in the Lord than you imagined possible. You will defeat life-controlling habits. Your Christian life will work.

Does that sound too good to be true? Am I overpromising? I don’t think so.

Certainly we will experience trials, discipline, and struggles all our lives. Certainly we will have ups and downs in practicing God’s presence. We will always have unanswered questions.

But when we practice God’s presence, we walk through these difficulties as overcomers.

An apostle’s example

Paul describes this: “We have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies.” (2 Cor. 4:7–10)

And elsewhere, “Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.” (Phil. 4:11–13)

And again, “In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Rom. 8:37–39)

This is the victorious life possible for those who practice God’s presence. We will learn how in upcoming posts.