“You are filled to overflowing with his comforting love”(Phil 2:1)
What a beautiful promise and what a tragedy that so many of us do not experience on a regular basis. Comforting love from the Father.
Instead, ministry leaders tend to work for this love, not from it.
We work hard to help others, feel accepted by God, be used of Him for His glory. But friends do not use each other, and God is longing to satisfy and strengthen with His quiet enjoyment of us.
If the boldest declaration from heaven about Jesus is that He is God’s beloved Son, then the most important thing about us is the same. Jesus’ behavior follows God’s pleasure. His work, actions and ministry followed a secure attachment to the Father’s love. We tend to do the opposite, behaving our way to “worthy enough” and exhausting ourselves while doing it.
Most are not even aware of rejecting God’s comfort, yet where we go for comfort will be the telling factor of whether or not we are experiencing this patient, unhurried, satisfying love.
“I will extend peace to her like a river…you will nurse and be carried on her arm and dandled on her knees. As a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you…”. Isa. 66:12-13
When was the last time you felt God’s quiet enjoyment of you?
A sense of well-being where you relaxed and let the internal walls of your heart come down?
“Becoming the Beloved is the great spiritual journey we have to make. And we don’t have to kill ourselves to get there…always anxious and restless, always lustful and angry, never fully satisfied. Because we ARE the Beloved. It seems that all of us human beings have deep inner memories of the paradise that we have lost. We are intimately loved long before our parents, teachers, spouses, children and friends loved or wounded us. That’s the truth of our lives. That’s the truth I want you to claim for yourself.”
– Life of the Beloved by Henri Nouwen
Let this Valentine’s season be your invitation to claim your belovedness and experience His comfort. Create space in the next few days to be alone with God with no distractions for at least an hour. See God carrying you and quietly enjoying your presence as Isaiah 66 portrays.