The amazing thing is that God designed us to be able to communicate with Him. We blew it but He sent us the Messiah Jesus to restore what we lost and a lot more besides.
What is man that Thou art mindful of him? -- Somewhere in psalms
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Thou hast made us for Thyself alone and our hearts are restless until we rest in Thee. Augustine ,br>
The chief end of man is to glorrify God and enjoy Him forever. -- Westminster Shorter Catechism ,br>
At Thy right hand are pleasures for evermore. -- Psalm 16:11
As the deer panteth after the water brooks, so longs my soul after Thee.
He that cometh to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him -- Hebrews 11:7
I am nothing, I have nothing, I desire nothing but Jesus Christ." This was the mantra as it were of fourteenth century Roman Catholic mystic Walter Hilton, and I like the brevity of this way of stating the essential mental set that takes us to the presence of God. It affirms both the command to deny ourselves and take up our cross and poverty of spirit. Hilton unfortunately had too many Romanisms to make him a trustworthy teacher but I nevertheless like this brief formula of his.
Finally a nod to John of the Cross' poem about the Dark Night of the soul. It's a treatise on the mystical path to God and it has nothing whatever to do with suffering which is how too many people take it. If there is any suffering at all involved in it, he probably disucseusses it in his commentary on his poem called "The Aescent of Mount Carmel" but just to read the poem itself certainly implies no suffering: "on a dark night," it starts out, "kindles in love with yearnings," -- does that sound l9ike suffering? No, the "dark night' he is talking about is the quieting of the senses that connect us to this physical world, and the clamorings of the self flife. When these are quieted, put under the blanket of dark night as it were, then the spirit can be freed to come into the presence of gOD.
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To be dead to myself and alive in Thee, empty of myself and full of Thee is my prayer. And I know I can't do this, I'm way too full of myself but hope that You might do it for me. Amen
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