Heartburn (for the Loveable One)

“He is Himself the Loveable [One] in His essential Being, and gives Himself to be the object of our love. He wills our love for Him to issue in our bliss, not to be void and vain. His love both opens up the way for ours and is our love’s reward. How kindly does He lead us in love’s way, how generously He returns the love we give, how sweet He is to those who wait for Him! He is rich unto all that call upon Him, for He can give them nothing better than Himself. He gave Himself to be our Righteousness, and keeps Himself to be our great Reward. He sets Himself to the refreshment of our souls, and spends Himself to free the prisoners.”

St Bernard of Clairveax

Words like these make my heart leap, and give me hope that one day, I too, shall have such revelations of Christ’s love for me- for us as humans. I pray that the Lord would keep me and gaurd me, Psalm 91 style, that I would be found in Him and He in me to such a degree that people no longer see Joseph Paul Baron; rather, they see Christ living through me. That I no longer have my desires, but His, and His desires become so much a part of me that there is no more me, only Him. My heart burns for Him, and my soul yearns…

The other thought running through my head is that I long for others to know Him like this too. To me, it seems selfish to hide such a treasure, when the whole world hungers for this very thing. Why would I want to keep it bottled up? I pray that God would use me, like Paul said in I Corinthians that my message, and my words wouldn’t be wise and persuasive; rather, they would be filled with the Spirit’s power. The power of God lives in me, the same God who spoke and all that is came to be, the same God who raised Jesus (who’s name means “God saves”) from the dead, the same God that split the Red Sea, that spoke from the burning bush that wasn’t consumed, that hid Moses in rock with His hand so that he could see His glory- that God lives in me. I pray, as John the Baptist prayed, that I would decrease so that He may increase in me.

Lord use me.