v. 25 – before all time and now and forever.

Devotional:

We have these deep yearnings inside us which never seem to go away. We want to belong. We want to have significance. We want to experience justice. We want unity. We want peace. We want people, communication, and something beyond us which explains to us where our deepest longings comes from and how they can be satisfied. We want our lives to mean something. What everyone on the planet is looking for, whether they are aware of it or not, is God. What, or better yet, who we want is the trinitarian God of the Bible. Our deepest needs, which are seemingly never satisfied through our own personal pursuits, point us to the relationship which we were originally created to enjoy through a loving union with God.

The trinity has always been since the beginning of time, and it always will be. God’s eternal experience in relationship to Himself has and will always be shalom or universal flourishing. The Father, the Son who is Jesus, and the Holy Spirit never disagree and they never shame each other or one-up each other. The godhead’s experience is one of mutual, voluntary submission in all things all the time. God has always had a perfect relationship in, and with Himself. The trinity is completely self-sufficient and has need of nothing. God did not create man out of a need to be worshipped or any other kind of need; He created man out of His nature to love. He created us so we could enjoy Him through a loving union with Him in the same way He has always enjoyed Himself.

The consistent rhythm of Father, Son, and Spirit is that the Father glorifies the Son who glorifies the Spirit who glorifies the Father who glorifies the Son. It is an unbroken circle of love that runs eternally in a straight line that has no beginning or end.

The offer of salvation is an offer to be reunited in heart, soul, mind, and strength with the undivided God who is three in one. In the trinity, we see a humbling picture of God’s relationship with Himself which is the portrait of what real life is supposed to be like. How gracious it is of God to show us openly what He could have easily kept a secret! We don’t just see our beginning or original purpose through the trinity; we see our end as well.

When Jesus was asked by a Jewish scribe, “What is the greatest commandment?”, which is like ultimately asking Him, “What is the most important thing in the world?”, Jesus responded with, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength” (Mark 12:29-30).

If we are not careful, we could jump right to what we believe is our part, which is to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and miss the point of His love completely. The point
is not to try harder to love God or categorically get your life in order through a deeper devotion to God. The point is “The Lord our God, The Lord is one” (Deuteronomy 6:4). He is undivided and undefeated. The most important thing in the world is that we catch a vision of the one true living God. When we see Him for who He is, Father, Son, and Spirit, we will respond to Him in worship. And from a place of humble response, our love for Him will grow and our devotion to Him will mature.

He was, as Jude says, before all time and He will be now and forever. His offer to us is to look upon Him, to get lost in awe as we consider His wonder, and to believe in His name and rejoice in His nature. He has invited us to be quiet before Him and listen as He sings over us. He has called us by His name and placed us in Christ so we have access to His throne room of grace where we go boldly asking, seeking, and knocking in confidence that our Father, our brother, and our friend is listening.

REFLECTION:

What things have you substituted as hollow alternatives to God’s rightful place in your life? In what ways has your love and devotion to God grown recently?