The Question

Friday, February 7, 2025

Good morning, Lord

Father in Heaven, I seek You first-Your peace-Your knowledge and discernment. Build my trust. I take up my cross and follow...In Jesus' name…

Memory verse: Psalm 139:23–24 (ESV)

23  Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! 24  And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!

Verse of the Day: Psalm 97:10

10 O you who love the Lord, hate evil!    He preserves the lives of his saints;    he delivers them from the hand of the wicked.

Daily Reading: Leviticus 1-3 Matthew 24:1-28 

The Question

I am often revisited by a question brought to me years ago as I studied and prayed but before we hear it I must say that John 3:16 is absolute.

God did give His only Son to die for me-for us all because of His ultimate love.

If we believe-if we trust Him with our eternal souls, He will do what He says-we will never die-our bodies eventually stop working but our soul lives forever.

Now, the question: “If there was no promise of Heaven-no eternal life-would you be a believer?”

If this life was all there is-would you still serve Jesus because He loves you and He died to give you unconditional

forgiveness and perfect peace and the His indwelling Holy Spirit?(My answer is absolutely, yes. What is yours?)

The reason I believe God dropped this question on me is to expose my shallow understanding-my ‘top water’ trust and to prick my heart and pull me into the deep water of desire for Him so I would find my happiness in Him.

Human desire is a good thing. It is natural, I believe, because before sin entered and separated mankind from God, mankind had no emotional need. Man was entirely secure in God. There it is- ’in’ God.

Separated from God-’out’ of God-man was empty and has been ever since. Nothing can completely fill us but God and Him alone.

In Christ, we have abundant life if we Him seek it in Him, Matthew 6:33.

We must remove our earthly words from a worldly context.

Desire for satisfaction is a prayer from Psalm 90:14

“Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.”

In Christ, God has given us satisfaction, joy, and gladness. We are told to set our hearts and minds on God for this so this will be real in our lives.

My point is that we may be missing a great deal of what God has for us here because we have not realized satisfaction in Him.

God is most praised when we are most satisfied in Him. Praise comes from elation. When a loved one succeeds, we praise them from the joy we feel in our hearts for them.

As a child, when we were praised for success, it always meant more coming from those we knew really loved us.

That is the kind of praise God wants-from a heart that loves Him and wants more-one who cannot abide being away from Him.

Our praise does not come from our joy in Him-our joy in Him is our praise. Our words of praise are words of our joy-our satisfaction-our delight.

Psalm 37:4 “Delight yourself in the Lord,    and he will give you the desires of your heart.”

If there was no eternal life...but there is. On top of this life of joy and satisfaction and love-there is everlasting life.

...because He loves us…

Father in Heaven,

Your name is joy. May your joy bring my obedience as in Heaven. Give me good sense for today. Forgive me my fears. Lead me from the enemy.

Good, good God and precious friend,

In the name of Christ Jesus,

Amen