iCrucified

Questions: “Why do we feel a need to be right?” “Why do we feel the need to be vindicated in any way, for anything?” “Why must we have answers…?” “Why do we question whether or not God is in control” “Why do we doubt if we claim to believe?” “Do we have joy?” “Do we have peace?” “Do we believe that God is, indeed, our portion?” “Do we believe He controls the moment?” “Do we believe He has overcome?”

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You Are My Joy: David Crowder Band
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 Do we have Joy; Jesus Joy?

Consider the writing of Bernard of Clairveaux:

We will find happiness when we no longer love anything in ourselves except for God. When will flesh and blood, this clay pot, this earthly house, understand that? When will this new affection be felt? When will this divine intoxication, this forgetting of self, this perception of brokenness that turns us toward God, cause us to cling to him and become united with him in Spirit?

When this happens we can say, My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. Anyone who tastes something as rare as this, even if only for one brief moment, will be blessed.

To lose yourself, as though you did not exist, to become nothing, is an act of God. When it happens, the sinful world will envy you, evil will disturb you. your body will become a burden, and concern for other will call you back with a jolt.

At this point our personal cares and needs will no longer take first place. We will want God’s will to be done in us. We will pray every day, “your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” O pure and sacred love! it frees us from personal vanity. It is cleansing.

Love of this kind is not won by our efforts. It is a gift from God. We will arrive at this highest love when we are no longer enslaved by any physical desire or upset by any difficulty. It will happen when we are eagerly seeking only the Lord’s joy.

Bernard of Clairveaux: On Loving God

If that is not sufficient fodder for our pondering…read from the Book of Job chapters 38 through 41.

I will trust Him…He is my portion…He is my JOY

Living iCrucified and…

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