“The Hope of Our Hearts”

"The Hope of Our Hearts"

    "In Thy presence is fullness of joy.  At Thy right hand there are pleasures forevermore" (Psalm 16:11).

    Measures of joy and pleasure grace us in things, experiences, provisions, and most of all, people.  Only in God Himself, however, do we find immeasurable fulfillment of our hearts.  "He is thy life" declared Moses in the Old Testament.  "To live is Christ" proclaimed the Apostle Paul in the New (Deuteronomy 30:20; Philippians 1:21).  Our present experience of such grace is limited as we "see through a glass darkly" (I Corinthians 13:12).  The Person, life, and presence of God nevertheless constitutes the one indispensable content of our hearts.  As my wife Frances says, "Having Him, we have all."  Indeed, we require much of earthly supply to maintain our physical, emotional, and intellectual health, as provided by our  Heavenly Father.  Regarding the depths of our being and selfhood, however, the inner sanctum of our spirits exists for One.  "God is the strength of my heart, and my portion forever" (Psalm 73:26).  This we must believe, first because it is true, and then because our Lord desires loving fellowship with us based on His personal devotion and our response of "Thou art my God, I will exalt Thee!" (Isaiah 25:1).

    We will progress only to a limited measure of relationship with God if we fail to build the altar within our hearts whereupon we sacrifice all idols.  If we believe that anything or anyone else can supply the joy and peace of our hearts, we are grasping at a passing wind.  "Thou art God alone" affirmed the Psalmist to the Holy One who made and redeemed our hearts to serve as His spiritual temple (Psalm 86:10).  No one else can dwell in this Holy of holies deep within us.  We must therefore solemnly and joyfully choose to believe that we could lose everything, but if God remained, we would have lost nothing.  He alone fulfills the hope of our hearts.  This is hard truth to our flesh, but blessed assurance to our spirits.  Our Father loves us to the degree He could not be content by merely dwelling with us.  "I will dwell in them" He promised, and then fulfilled His word through the Lord Jesus' death, resurrection, ascension, and giving of the indwelling Holy Spirit to all who believe (II Corinthians 6:16).  We must not be content with any notion that something or someone other than God can fill and fulfill us.  We were made for the wondrous abiding of His Spirit within us, to the degree that Paul proclaimed of believers, "the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given unto us" (Romans 5:5).  Herein lies "fullness of joy" and "pleasures forevermore."  We will find such grace and such fulfillment of heart in no other, and in nothing else…

"And now, Lord, what wait I for?  My hope is in Thee."

(Psalm 39:7)

Weekly Memory Verse

    Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.

(I Timothy 1:17)