06/03/2025
Today let’s mull over what it means to really know God. What should a life be like that is fully emersed in and engaged with the will of God? Let’s consider that place in our faith where we struggle less and the comfort of walking in God’s presence has settled peacefully over us.
“Grace, mercy, and peace will be with us, from God the Father and from Jesus Christ the Father's Son, in truth and love.”
2 John 1:3 ESV
A few years ago my wife spent a week vacationing with my daughter and her family in Orange Beach Alabama. I stayed at home to work and save my vacation days for a visit to see my mother in Virginia. When we were younger, and our relationship just maturing, we would never have separated like this. However, after more than forty years, we had become comfortable with one another and come to know each other so well, that were at peace in each other's lives, likes, and dislikes. I say all of this about our relationship to tell you about what I did while she was away.
Before Ann left for the beach we had our family room repainted. It was expensive, but had been my wife's desire for quite some time. After it was done it looked so nice that she wistfully said that she would like our basement stairway and bathroom repainted. It wasn't a plan... just a passing thought; you know, the kind of vague dream that over time begins to become an idea, then a plan, and finally, at some future time, reality. So, when Ann left for the beach I decided to surprise her, and after a trip to the paint store and Home Depot, I worked all weekend, and every evening during the week to paint those rooms. I did this to surprise her when she came home. I remembered the colors she liked from the sample color cards she had brought home to dream from, and the casual conversations I had overheard as she spoke with family members... so the big job became less about the work, and more about an act of love.
At last the week (and the painting) was over and I picked Ann up at the airport. On the way home, amid all the stories of the beach, she mentioned that she would like to get the stairway and bathroom repainted at some time... I just smiled and said "really?" When we pulled into the garage I told her to go upstairs and that I would bring up her suitcase. I watched as she opened the door to the stairway and her reaction was priceless. I then told her to look at the bathroom! Well it was fantastic... for both of us.
This all began in being comfortable enough to know each other's likes and dislikes, and in being settled enough in our relationship that the times which once seemed like separation no longer seem as such. We are like this in our faith and relationship with God as well. Somewhere through the years of spiritual development our togetherness broadens to the point that our being in Nashville and God being on a distant Beach doesn't separate us anymore than going to work in the morning and our spouse going about their daily routine. We will have come to the place where we are always together... even when others might see us as being apart.
This is a secret of love and faith that I now want to share with you... that when we become so at ease with God and His will for us that there is no time or place where we believe we are separated from Him, then a deep and abiding comfort will come over us and the love that exits between us will have reached a point where it is beyond our ability to adequately describe. God shows us this amazingly comfortable secret of loving one another through His Son Jesus Christ, and then teaches us its intricacies through our faith, and His Holy Spirit.
“The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him; and he will shew them his covenant.”
Psalms 25:14 KJV
There is a saying that speaks of being "Comfortable in our own skins", well, there is truth in this saying, that we can become so comfortable inside that everything within us is at peace. We can also become comfortable in the skin of our faith, and when we do so the presence of God pours peace into us in such a way that we hardly perceive it as an effort. It is in this moment of awakening that we realize what God has asked of us… to love Him with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength… and we find that there is no effort in this.
“And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”
Philippians 4:7 KJV
Love like this doesn't happen with a bang, at the end of a ceremony, or through a single prayer, it happens slowly and deliberately like the distancing of the moon from the earth... it happens slowly until one day we realize it is so, and the realization of that doesn't surprise us... it just makes perfect sense, and we rest in it. To love like this is not something we do, but something we become. When we experience such love and find that it has filled us, then we feel its presence as though we have known this secret forever and wonder how we are just now acknowledging it.
Prayer:
Father, I thank you for the deep and abiding love we share. I thank you for this relationship in which we are never apart in distance, thought, or deed. Lord, I thank you for a lifetime of lessons and loving in which each moment brought us closer. Holy Father, I thank you for my realization that we are never apart, never out of touch, never separate in desire or will not even for a moment, and that our relationship is deeper than any ocean and taller than the mountains. Father I thank you for this day, not because of what I will use it for, but because you are in it with me... your presence is all I need, and your peace, which I find in Jesus, is my dearest friend. Rest in me Abba and let me rest in you. Let me surprise you with my knowledge and desire to fulfill your dreams, just as you surprise me with your understanding and desire to give me mine. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you my God who has loved me always, even from the foundation of the world, and who leads me to love you more each day, measure by measure, throughout eternity. Holy are you who doesn’t provide for me because I have needs or wants, but because you love me and love to see the surprise in my eyes and feel the joy you bring me. Merciful and full of grace are you Lord who loves me always and holds me close to you with total disregard for time and distance… for you hold me in your heart always and know that I hold you in mine. No gift you can give me, or that I can give you, is too much. You gave me Jesus… I give you all of me. Praised be your Holy name Father and help me as I strive to love you more, please you in all my ways, honor you as I do your will, and bring you glory in every facet of my life. This is my desire, and my prayer… that I can paint your staircase with my love and see the pleasure and joy in your eyes.
Hallelujah, and Amen.
“do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
Philippians 4:6-7 ESV
Rich Forbes