Well, at the risk of losing any readers who normally visit our blog for family pictures, I can't help but post more of what I'm learning as I re-read J.I. Packer's classic, Knowing God. If you haven't read this book, allow me to just say that I have truly been pastored by J.I packer during the last few days--perhaps in a way that only I have needed. But I dare say it will minister to each one in its own way, as God's Word applied to men's hearts always does.
From Knowing and Being Known (Emphases mine):
"There is unspeakable comfort--the sort of comfort that energizes, be it said, not enervates--in knowing that God is constantly taking knowledge of me in love and watching over me for my good. There is tremendous relief in knowing that his love to me is utterly realistic, based at every point on prior knowledge of the worst about me, so that no discovery now can disillusion him about me, in the way I am so often disillusioned about myself, and quench his determination to bless me."
[I looked up "disillusioned" for a fuller understanding of this passage. Here is the definition: "Disappointed in someone or something that one discovers to be less good than one had believed."]
"There is, certainly, great cause for humility in the thought that he sees all the twisted things about me that my fellow humans do not see (and I am glad!), and that he sees more corruption in me than that which I see myself (which, in all conscience, is enough). There is, however, equally great incentive to worship and love God in the thought that, for some unfathomable reason, he wants me as his friend, and desires to be my friend, and has given his Son to die for me in order to realize this purpose."
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I don't think I am alone in often feeling "disillusioned" about myself--disappointed in discovering I am "not as good as I had believed"--more wicked than I imagined, in fact. And when the sight of such darkness invades my conscience, it causes my soul to fear that my inheritance as a child of the King may not be sure. What pure, exhilarating, life-altering, soul-thrilling joy it is to be reminded through Packer's words (and Scripture itself!) that God's love to me is utterly realistic. Praise God that for some unfathomable reason indeed, he saw all that I ever was or ever would be and while I was yet a sinner, Christ died for me, purchasing freedom for a slave and giving me a new name: Friend. Daughter. Child. Lamb. Mine.
Praise God.
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