His love speaks volumes.

An old professor of mine gave me a high compliment over the weekend. He told me that when he knew me as a student he thought of me as an individual that knew God by name. I've been thinking about this ever since he said it to me, mostly because I so desire this to be true in my life. I long to be a person who knows my Lord and shares him with others. Part of my blog mission is to share the heart of God with you, my beautiful and awesome readers, as He shares it with me.

Tonight, my roommate and I were discussing the importance of reading the bible. I've been recently trying to get back into habit but admittedly it is not as often practiced as it should be. Now, the law would say I should read the Bible because God told me to. Grace shows me that I want to read the bible because it helps to bring life. God speaks to me through His word. It is a fairly regular occurrence to read a portion of scripture and feel as if it had "come alive" in my reading. I could have read that same passage 100 times before but in the most recent reading, the Holy Spirit will quicken my hearts understanding and I will newly engage that particular portion of scripture.

The bible also helps me recognize the voice of my Father. Jesus indicated in scripture that his sheep know his voice. Naturally, we are the sheep, but how can we learn his voice? Our thoughts are filled constantly with many things including our own thoughts, words that others have spoken to us, whispers from the enemy, garbage of our day (ie. commercials, etc), negative thought patterns that we've come to accept, and of course words from God. The previous sentence is not a complete list but our thought life is filled and how are we to know where all these thoughts come from. How can we discern the voice of the Spirit speaking truth into our hearts versus the voice of our enemy lying to us. There are many ways to develop an open heart to the words of our God, but one proven way is to mediate on scripture and learn the love God has for you through His word.

Names are an intimate thing, for a person to know one's name is to know something about that person. In biblical times, a name often described something about a person. Hence, why Saul's name changed to Paul in the New Testament. God has revealed His name to us. God has many names as He is infinite. He first revealed Himself as "I am" to Abraham (who also experienced a name change upon meeting the true God). But since within biblical understanding, names represented character - Love describes my God. His love is unlike any others as His love embraces me despite knowing everything about me. His love covers over sin, His love pursues, His love comforts, His love calls, His love is perfect.

I can find rest within His love.