Delighting God’s Heart this Christmas

“But without faith it is impossible to please him. For he that draws near to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them who seek him out.”

(Hebrews 11:6, Darby Translation)

“…must believe that he is…”

That he is what?

I believe the answer to this question is not that “he is real” or even that “he exists” as we traditionally think, but that “he is love.” (1 John 4:8, 16)

God is because he is love.

Simply, to live or be (as it means from Heaven’s perspective) is to be filled with nothing except love or—as it relates to humans—to have the knowledge of being perfectly loved by God.

GAINING FAVOR

Hebrews 11:6 says that without faith we can’t please God. You and I please God immensely when we believe he is love and, therefore, loves us perfectly.

Have you ever had your love questioned by the subject of your deep love? But what joy we have when, like a small child, our love is received, trusted, assumed, counted on, and understood by another. Bar none.

In the same way, God has great joy in us when we don’t doubt his love. When we determine that, no matter what circumstances come, he loves us perfectly.

TO TRUST GOD’S LOVE

To trust God’s love is to treat him as he deserves. Is to deeply honor him. Is to acknowledge, again and again, the very essence of who he is: love itself.

To leverage every disappointment, every shameful experience, every tragedy, every moment of loneliness, every depressed emotion, every loveless relationship, every sinful thought as an opportunity to gaze heavenward and receive perfect love is to wage war against the darkness and win.

It is to step further into light. Is to go deeper in your relationship, knowledge of, and experience with God. Is to rise above this perpetually dissatisfying horizon and begin to walk in satisfaction, peace, wholeness, and profound happiness.

Is to come into fully-functioning relationship with him. Is to have the very favor—pleasure, joy, grace—of God on us to receive his ‘yes’ for every desire and need we bring him. (John 15:7, 2 Cor. 1:20)

COME TO GOD

This Christmas, as we celebrate the one who came to us so we could find perfect love, let us make good on the reason for his arrival.

Let us honor him by believing he loves us perfectly. Let us delight his heart by receiving his perfect love for us, come what may. And let us come to God through the perfect love of his Son, to lay before him everything we carry in our hearts—every longing, desire, and need. And then once we’ve done so, let us continue on in faith in his perfect love, expecting nothing but love from him forever. (Rom. 5:17, 8:38-39; Heb. 10:38-39; 1 John 4:16)

“Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” Hebrews 4:16 NASB

KATIE MOON is a Biblical researcher, writer, teacher/speaker, and founder of a non-profit online ministry called In Black and Light.