The sum of the divine commands is thus: “Love me above all things; that is, look upon me as thy only chief good; hunger and thirst after me; place the whole of thy happiness in me alone; seek me above all, and nothing besides me, but so far as it has a relation to me.” But how is it conceivable, that God should thus speak to the soul, and the soul should religiously attend to, and diligently perform this, and yet never enjoy God? Is it becoming the most holy and excellent Being, to say to his pure unspotted creature, (such as we now suppose it), “Look upon me as thy chief good; but know, I neither am nor ever shall be such to thee. Long after me, but on condition [of] never obtaining thy desire; hunger and thirst after me, but only to be forever disappointed, and never satisfied; seek me above all things, but seek me in vain, who am never to be found”? He does not know God, who can image that such things are worthy of him.
After all, if it cannot be inferred from the very nature of the divine goodness, that God gives himself to be enjoyed by a holy creature, proportionable to its state; it is possible, notwithstanding the goodness of God, that the more holy a creature is, the more miserable. Which I prove thus: the more holy any one is, he loves God with greater intenseness of all his powers; the more he loves, the more he longs, hungers, and thirsts, after him; the more intense the hunger and thirst, the more intolerable the pain, unless he finds wherewith to be satisfied. If therefore, this thirst be great to the highest degree, the want of what is so ardently desired, will cause an incredible pain. Whence I infer, that God cannot, consistent with his goodness, refuse to grant to his holy creature the communion of himself %u2026
(Excerpted from Herman Witsius, Economy of the Covenants Between God and Man [amazon
It’s nearly overwhelming to think that what we now see only by faith, namely the inexhaustible riches and unfathomable glory of Christ, will one day be clearly accessible by sight. In your presence, Lord, is the fulness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore! Come, Lord Jesus! (Psalm 16 [show] Preserve me, O God, for in you I take refuge.
[2]I say to the LORD, "You are my Lord;
I have no good apart from you."
[3]As for the saints in the land, they are the excellent ones,
in whom is all my delight.
[4]The sorrows of those who run after another god shall multiply;
their drink offerings of blood I will not pour out
or take their names on my lips.
[5]The LORD is my chosen portion and my cup;
you hold my lot.
[6]The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;
indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance.
[7]I bless the LORD who gives me counsel;
in the night also my heart instructs me.
[8]I have set the LORD always before me;
because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken.
[9]Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices;
my flesh also dwells secure.
[10]For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol,
or let your holy one see corruption.
[11]You make known to me the path of life;
in your presence there is fullness of joy;
at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
:11b; Revelation 22:20, ESV [show] [20]He who testifies to these things says, "Surely I am coming soon." Amen. Come, Lord Jesus! (ESV))
gmail.com
your site hates my guts.
and you make us work hard. yay for that. even so, i’ve not worked this hard to understand something in quite a while… i even had a whole fancy question typed out that got erased… then when i tried to type it again i “got” it, and was explaining that, and then it got erased (told you it hates me)…
thank goodness for copy-paste this time.
Sorry about that, Laur.
The hordes of comment-spam lie at my door, and their desire is for me: that annoying-as-heck verification thing below is my attempt to rule over them.
Any chance you could ask and answer your own question anyway, just for the benefit of the rest of us?
(For future reference, you should be able to just hit the ‘back’ button in your browser, and the text should still be there.)
i basically was missing the part where God does not deprive us, His children, of Himself. so all the hungering and longing for him sounded an awful lot like deliberate torture. so my question was a long, rambling piece about how the desire we have for God now is a good thing and that the pain from “missing” Him (for lack of a better term) is not as great as the joy from having Him, even now. but then i reread the quote enough times that it started to make sense…
and i tried that “back” button bit before… to no avail.
no worries, though. i WAS ready to kill darcy (the computer) though.
sorry for how incredibly badly that was written…
Thanks for posting your Q/A, Lauren.
I had a similar struggle when I realized that the ultimate goal of salvation isn’t my salvation, but God’s glory. I thought, “so, I’m just some pawn? Some means to an end? Huh. Umm…well, hallelujah…I guess.” And in rolled the fog.
But then I realized that the means to the end of winning a race is running fast. If a person doesn’t actually run fast with all he has, or if he kind of ‘fakes it,’ he won’t actually win. The winning is secured in his running. The parallel being that the means to God’s glory is his actually loving and communicating Himself to me. If his love is half-baked, or insincere, then so will be his glory.
In other words, to whatever degree and with whatever intensity that God wants glory, to that same degree and with that same intensity will he pour out his full-hearted love and goodness to me. (Ephesians 2:4-7 [show] [4]But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, [5]even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ--by grace you have been saved-- [6]and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, [7]so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. (ESV)
) And the brightness of that sun drove the fog away…
Hm. Sorry the ‘back’ thing didn’t work. I’m floored.
So, 1) your computer is named; 2) your computer is named darcy. That’s hilarious.
hey, i figure if i have to spend this much time staring into a face, it should be that of a respectable man…
…clever.