Delighting in God

From a sermon by Spurgeon:

And then what a joy it is to think that He is my God! Whatever I have, or have not, it does not matter, I have a God, and all that there is in God is mine! O my Soul, what a happy, happy being you are! Blessed be God forever for making me, seeing that He has made Himself to be mine! We praise Him, first, for our being, and then for our well-being — and the essence of our well-being is that God, the greatest of all Beings, is ours forever and ever! This God is our God forever and ever! He will be our Guide even unto death and each one of us who is truly His can sing — ‘Yes, my own God is He.’

 

As I think of God, I meditate on all His attributes. He is a powerful God. Oh, how I love Him for that! I do not want to have a weak arm to lean upon — let my Lord be the mighty God! Hallelujah to Him because He can do all things and all that power will be used for righteousness and truth! 

 

I love to think of Him as the God of Love, nothing, even in His Justice, being contrary to love. Oh, what a blessed God I have — a God of Love! Then I think of Him as a God of Justice, and I am equally pleased with Him. I do not want an unjust God — a God who could pardon sin without Atonement is no God for me! I delight to feel that His justice is as much concerned and bound to save me as His mercy. Oh, what a joy to be able to rejoice in His Justice! 

 

And then to rejoice in His Truth — His faithfulness, that He cannot lie — His immutability, that He cannot change — His eternal existence, that He cannot faint or die — ah, my Brothers and Sisters, I shall not attempt to go over all the qualities of the Infinite Jehovah but whatever they are, we delight in them all, and yet we rejoice in Him most of all!

 

There are many causes for joy to a Christian, but the great wellhead is God Himself. I can rejoice in His people, but then they have their faults. I can rejoice in His Word, but then I sometimes tremble at that Word. I can rejoice in God's works, but then there is a certain terror even about them. But as for God, He Himself is perfect! And whether He is dressed in robes of war, or comes to me with words of peace, now that I am reconciled to Him by the death of His Son, He is altogether delightful under any aspect and in any place!

 

It may seem a very little thing for us thus to delight in God, but it is the greatest thing of all! It is the crown of a revival that God’s people should rejoice in Him.

Knowing God

Jesus told us that eternal life involves knowing God the Father and himself (John 17:3). There are many things we can know about God, but Jesus includes in that statement what features of God and himself he wanted his people to know about in particular. As far as God the Father is concerned, Jesus said that we should know him as the only true God; as far as knowing Jesus is concerned, he said that we should know him as the One whom the Father had sent to earth on a wonderful mission.

 

When he described the Father as the only true God, Jesus was stating the uniqueness and the perfection of God. Since he is the only God, he must be unique; and since he is the true God he must be perfect. How can we who are only creatures and we who are imperfect come to know the One who is unique and flawless?

 

The answer is that we can know him through knowing Jesus. Part of the mission on which Jesus was sent was for him to reveal the Father. Indeed, in John 14 we are told that when the disciples heard and saw Jesus, they also heard and saw what the Father is like.

 

So when Jesus said that eternal life was to know God the Father and himself, he was not indicating that we need to discover two levels of knowledge about God – one level for the Father and one level for Jesus. Rather he was saying that the only way to discover what the Father is like is by discovering what Jesus is like. In other words, we cannot have the knowledge of one without knowledge of the other.

 

Is that not amazing and yet so straightforward? The unique and perfect triune God has made it so easy for us to know him. All we need to do is develop a relationship with the Saviour and at the same time we will have a relationship with the Father and the Holy Spirit. There are three eternal and distinct Persons in the Godhead, but they have arranged things so that when we know the One we also know the Three.

Knowing God

No doubt, there are different ways of discovering who God is. Several are mentioned in the Bible. A lot of space would be needed to refer to them all. But here are four ways. 

One way is through what is revealed about him in creation, which Paul in Romans 1 says is very clear or obvious. In creation, we see God’s power, wisdom and goodness. His power upholds creation, his wisdom makes it coherent, and his goodness is revealed through it as he provides for his creatures. Is it not incredible that we can experience this knowledge of God whenever we open our eyes!

Another way of discovering who God is is through prayer. The fact that the Almighty God would listen to one of his creatures is amazing. It is also amazing that he is capable of listening to all of them, should they choose to pray simultaneously. And he could listen to all of them, should they all choose to pray continually. But he does more than listen. God is more than a sympathetic ear. He can answer prayer and give what is requested. Those who spend time in prayer find out a lot about God.

In the church we discover much about God, and not just from its pulpits. The people whom God has brought together in a congregation, despite their many differences, reveal that he is a wonderful unifier. And the gifts that he has given to each believer display his generosity since all in the congregation can benefit from each of those gifts.

We also see great things about God when we focus on Jesus. When reading about him in the Gospels we are watching God. He said of himself that those who have truly seen who he is have seen the Father. In the life of Jesus, we see divine kindness to the needy, we see that God has time for individuals who others would prefer to ignore (such as the woman of Samaria), and we see him performing miracles on behalf of those who would soon reject him (such as at the feeding of the 5000).

At the cross of Calvary, we discover much about God. We find that he takes sin seriously and will punish it - yet we also find that he is willing to pay the penalty in his Son. We find that he delights in mercy, as the penitent criminal discovered when he asked to be remembered by Jesus. Calvary is about the God who loves, but the love that he shows is mercy. Without Calvary, such an expression of divine love would never have been seen. And his tender mercies are above all his other works.