Singing with the joy of loving Him

The joy of the Lord is my strength (Nehemiah 8:10)

Pain becomes promise

Death becomes life

Mourning becomes dancing

Grief becomes joy

Sickness becomes health

and laughter comes.

When the King comes.

Jesus, You are my anchor, You are my soul's joy. I trust in You, I cling to You. You are the strength of my life and my portion forever. Be mine dear God and Shepherd of my soul. Be forever mine. I'll be forever Yours. Something about knowing You makes my soul sing. Something about being in Your presence makes my soul come alive. Something about glimpsing Your faithfulness makes me weep in gratitude. You are beyond breath-taking. You're beauty and splendour and surpassing glory all in Yourself. You eclipse the universe You made. In all its magnificence, it only begins to tell of Your magnitude. Of your delightfulness. All of You is beautiful. Your justice. Your love. Your righteousness. Your grace. Your mercy. Your peace. Your jealousy over us. Your royalty, Your Kingship. Your mastery, Your Lordship. Your victory, Your OG winner status. From eternity to eternity, You are God.

You are good.

Nothing comes close to being as beautiful as You are. 

And You can be flattered by no man, You don't need me to admire You. 

I need to admire You. Because I'm smitten with You. I've fallen in love and I won't stop falling deeper and deeper and deeper into You. I adore You. 

I'm not naive to the fact that really love isn't fallen into but rather chosen. However, in the case of the Christ, the Glorious One, 'You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide' (John 15:16). 

So really, I choose to accept that I am chosen. I choose to love the One who 'first loved me' (1 John 4:19). I am responding to the divine predestination, the marvellous order of my destiny, crafted for me long before I met this earth.

It's ludicrous to me how I ever loved another first when You are endlessly worthy of all that I am and have. But so easily, I've slipped into it again and again, despite having first fallen into step with You in sweet communion at a tender age. 

Every time I come back, to realise You are everything I need and want. That You satisfy my heart. 

And that, my God, is all I need.

God, I want to fall deeper and deeper in love with you forever. I want to choose You as my first love every single day.

This joy that I know deep within currently causes me to see clearly. But even when I cannot see, help me to believe. To choose to believe that I am Your beloved, and You are mine. (Song of Songs 2:16)

I feel like a windchime on a windy day. It reminds me of that song by Jonathan and Melissa Helser, Catch the Wind. I'm all ajoy* because He, my Love, has captured my heart.

You are beautiful, King Jesus.

You are beautiful, dear reader.

Love Him.

You will forever rejoice if you do.

xxx

Photo by Suresh Kumar on Unsplash

*Yes. I did make that word up. No beg-pardons needed. 😆