The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…
"Free Sails, Full Sails"
"We freely set our sails for the voyage of loving God with the breath of His Spirit filling our sails."
"Let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us."
(Psalm 90:17).
The Psalmist's request can be interpreted in terms of God's triune being and character of unselfish love: "Let the beauty of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit be upon us" (Psalm 90:17; I Peter 1:3; Hebrews 1:8; Job 26:13).
This speaks to the truth that the Persons of the triune godhead dwell in a personal relationship of infinite and eternal devotion to one another. No more beautiful reality exists than the truth that "God is love," that is, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit exist in a fellowship of commitment, affection, and common purpose that has always been, and will always be. Because the love of God is purely unselfish - "seeketh not her own" - God's eternally perpetual answer to the Psalmist's prayer will forever reveal in His people a beauty of grace beyond all comprehension:
"The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given unto us" (Romans 5:5).
The gift of God's relationship and fellowship finding a way into our hearts is precisely what the Lord Jesus Christ prayed for us just before He went to Calvary…
"And I have declared unto them Thy name, and will declare it, that the love wherewith Thou hast loved Me may be in them, and I in them" (John 17:26).
The "upon" us of the Psalmist's request is answered "exceeding, abundantly above all we can ask or think" by the Spirit of Christ coming to dwell within us in the new birth. "God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying Abba Father" (Ephesians 3:20; Galatians 4:6). The Lord Jesus prayed for such a gift to be given, and then suffered and died to redeem our hearts into becoming a suitable dwelling place for the Holy Spirit to bestow the love of God into the innermost depths of our being. "He that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him" (I John 4:16).
The enormity of such grace staggers the mind and overwhelms the heart. "The love of Christ passeth knowledge" (Ephesians 3:19). Presently, as we "walk by faith, not by sight," our awareness of God's living and loving presence within us most often moves unawares in our hearts and upon our members and faculties (II Corinthians 5:7). The left hand little knows what the right hand performs (Matthew 6:3). However, every act of obedience to God results from His loving, motivating, guiding, and empowering presence from within as we trust and submit ourselves to Him.
"Work out your own salvation, with fear and trembling, for it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure" (Philippians 2:13).
We play a vital and active role in the relationship, created in the image of God with capacities for fellowship with Him that never result from coercion, but from cooperation. His presence within us supplies the power for such grace received. The freedom He has built within us supplies the conscious and determined capacity to receive such power (Romans 10:8). Certainly, God receives all glory for our faith and faithfulness. However, Scripture so affirms the reality of our role that the Apostle Paul foretold a day when believers will "have praise of God" for that which we have done in receiving His grace, and living by the power thereof (I Corinthians 4:5).
The Psalmist who began our consideration, concludes it: "I will love Thee, o Lord my strength" (Psalm 18:1). David well knew he required the power of God to love God - "my strength." He also knew, however, that his Lord made human beings with the capacity to avail themselves of His enabling whereby our devotion to Him is personal rather than programmed - "I will." The Lord Jesus declared this synthesis of the Divine and human relating to one another as mysterious as the origin and destiny of the wind (John 3:8). Thus, we freely set our sails for the voyage of loving God with His Spirit filling our sails and leading us unto glories of grace and faith that, again, fulfill the measure of "exceeding, abundantly above all we ask or think."
To be loved by God, to know it, and then to freely love Him by the beauty and power of His nature dwelling within us - only eternity will explain such a marvel of mercy. But even that will not be long enough to rejoice in the ancient prayer that sought God's beauty to rest upon us - to dwell within us - a prayer for a glory and gift so infinite that it will require forever to answer…
"I have loved thee with an everlasting love."
(Jeremiah 31:3)
Weekly Memory Verse
I have loved thee with an everlasting love.
(Jeremiah 31:3)
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