Patient Longing

I find myself overwhelmed at the patient longing of God for my heart to be wholly His. Isaiah 30:18 says, “Therefore the Lord longs to be gracious to you, and therefore He waits on high to have compassion on you. For the Lord is a God of justice; how blessed are all those who long for Him.”

This truth penetrates me, and I want it to take root and grow something worthy of Him. His heart is so good, and His intentions are so kind. According to Ephesians 1:5, “He predestined and lovingly planned for us to be adopted to Himself as His own children through Jesus Christ, in accordance with the kind intention and good pleasure of His will.” (AMP)

He is Father, because He created me. He is compassionate Savior, because He also made a way for me to come home to Him (knowing Sin would enter the world), and He is patient redeemer, because He is able to rest in the power of His love to transform me again into His original design, able to stand in His presence holy, blameless, and beyond reproach. (Colossians 1:22)

O, the wonder of His amazing grace, holy character and beautiful heart! As the Psalmist said, “His way is perfect.” (Psalm 18:30 NKJV). And in Psalm 138:8, he says, “The Lord will perfect that which concerns me.” (NKJV) This perfect and holy God intends that I should be perfect and holy, too.

The longer I journey with Him, the more I realize that He is the one who perfects me, and not me, myself. There is no self-help for the Christian. There is only faith in the One who delivers, calls, redeems and transforms. It is my response to this beautiful Savior and magnificent salvation that matters. He is worthy of all of me, and the more I give my heart to Him, the more He changes me into His image.

I find this to be refreshingly energizing, because it isn’t up to me to change. It is only up to me to believe I can be. His patient longing for me is producing a patient and hope-filled endurance in me. This lover of my soul, who calls me by name when He talks to me, has captured my heart. I want to know Him more, and love Him deeper, and I pray that His great love will be the perfected passion of my heart, the pure motive of my will, and the single focus of my thoughts.

Dear reader, as you journey through this next week with Him, consider His way with you. Ponder His kind intention toward you, and meditate on His faithful love.

Until next, beloved, take every opportunity to sing of the goodness of God.