Dear Church,
If you acquire a habitual praying life, you will often hear God saying, “I love you.”
In the late 1970s I taught a Doctor of Ministry course on prayer, at Northern Seminary. One of my students was a pastor named Matt. I saw Matt as a great leader, who passionately loved Jesus. I have never forgotten the first day of that class, and what happened to Matt.
I handed out a copy of Psalm 23 to the students. I then said, “I want you to find a quiet place on the seminary campus. When you are there, meditate on Psalm 23. When God speaks to you, write it down on this paper. Do this for an hour. Then, return to class.” When the hour was over, all the students came back. Except Matt. My immediate thought was, “He doesn’t like my class.” What happened to him, I wondered?
The next day of class came. Matt was there. I asked about what happened in yesterday’s class. Why didn’t he come back? Matt said, “As I was praying, I heard God tell me that he loved me. I haven’t heard God say that to me for a long time. I was so moved that I couldn’t leave that place and return to the class.”
Before Jesus began his earthly ministry, two things happened. He was baptized. Then, he was led by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness, to be tempted by Satan. Immediately after he was baptized, we read this. Just as Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”
The voice of the Father could have said countless things about Jesus the Son. Like, “You will do great things.” Or, “You will one day die on a cross, for the redemption of humanity.” Or, “I will raise you from death to life.” While all these things, and more, are awesome and true, the Father chose to say, “I love you.”
In saying this, God the Father established Jesus’s identity. How significant is this? We could interpret the rest of the gospels as a battle over the identity of Jesus. The conflict began, immediately, after the Father spoke, “You are my greatly loved Son, and my pleasure rests upon you.” And then… At once the Spirit sent him out into the wilderness, 13 and he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. Satan tempted Jesus…, to do what? To forsake his identity as Beloved Son of the Father.
Your identity has the same root as that of Jesus. You are beloved daughters and sons of the King. For God so loves you, that he sent his Son to live and die for you. It is no coincidence that these were the first words from God that I ever heard.
I was twenty-one. A campus pastor, whose name was Marshall, was talking to me and my roommate about Jesus. I wasn't listening, because I was thinking how I could argue against this pastor. I asked him a question. A hard one. I threw him an unhittable curve ball. I was hoping he would try to answer it and make a fool of himself. Instead, to my great disappointment, he responded, "I can't answer that one." Then he added, "But I do believe there is a God, and that God loves you."
That was it, for me. I was undone. My narcissistic self was struck a fatal blow. God… loves… me. I knew it, viscerally, existentially, ontologically. In my heart. I have never been the same. I am God's beloved. So are you.
I find this to be a rule: I love talking with people who love me. I am in a praying, communicating, conversational love-relationship with the Lord of heaven and earth, who calls me “Beloved.”
Sisters and brothers, listen! As you live the praying life, you will hear the Father telling you, “You are my beloved child.”
Love, PJ
QUESTION
What is God saying to you, about you?
TO DO
Pray for a move of God in your church.
From my book 31 Letters to the Church on Praying.
