Whom have I in heaven but you? . . .
My flesh and my heart may fail,
but God is the strength of my heart
and my portion forever. (Psalm 73:25-26, NIV)

When I can finally see God for all He is to me –
            all that He always has been and always will be –
            so that anxiety and fear are lost in total trust;
When I have truly grasped His love,
            so that joy, rest, and belonging
            are deep and rich and constant;
When I am filled and dominated and totally led by His Spirit
            so that every desire, every thought,
            every motion of my being
            is in Him and prompted by Him;
What hunger will be left?

Psalm 27 expresses it this way:

One thing I ask of the Lord,
this is what I seek:
that I may dwell in the house of the Lord
all the days of my life,
to gaze upon the Lord and to seek him. (v.4, NIV)

When I see Him fully and trust Him completely, the only thing I will still hunger for is Him. All the beauty, glory, and abundance of heaven will come from one Source: God himself. We will never be anything but completely dependent on Him – not on His gifts, but on Him.

Revelation 21:22-23 says that in His immediate presence, we will need no sun, moon, or temple. He himself is our warmth and our light. Our worship is face-to-face.

In His personal presence, Jesus’ simple statements about himself become personal truth:

I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty. (John 6:35, NIV)

I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness. (John 8:12, NIV)

I am the resurrection and the life . . . Whoever lives and believes in me will never die (John 11:25-26, NIV).

I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life. (Revelation 21:6, NIV)

Your heart can be captured by the living beauty and simplicity of the personal Christ. That beauty holds a bonding that grows stronger and stronger, prayer by prayer. As we trust Him and love Him, we find our needs and hungers met in Him. Every lesser desire gradually disappears into Him.

And in knowing and interacting with such a wonderful, infinite God, we never get to the point of feeling, “OK, that’s enough.” Even in our joyful satisfaction, the hunger remains, continuing to draw us into fuller friendship with Him.

All of history, all the vast universe – seen and unseen – and all the desires and hopes of humanity are summed up in Christ (Ephesians 1:9-10). That summing up is also an individual process. Let Him start it in you now. Let Him begin it in your heart, and He will spread it throughout your thoughts and feelings, your attitudes and lifestyle.

He has not put eternity’s best blessings out of your reach. They are as near as His presence, as near as looking to Him in simple faith.

Father,
I look forward to the day when we
see You,
know You, and
respond to You for
all You are.
That will be heaven!

Hymn: Psalm 84