"I saw three manners of longing in God, and all to one end; of which we have the same in us, and by the same virtue and for the same end. The first is, that He longeth to teach us to know Him and love Him evermore, as it is convenient and speedful to us. The second is, that He longeth to have us up to His Bliss, as souls are when they are taken out of pain into Heaven. The third is to fulfill us in bliss; and that shall be on the Last Day, fulfilled ever to last."
Julian of Norwich (Ch. 75)
God has a longing for us to experience joyful love relationship with Him, and that longing is behind all His workings. And that longing will be fulfilled. God longs for us to know Him, to really know Him in all His goodness and love for us. For God is nothing but love, and He will overcome all our doubts and hesitations, all the lies we've believed that would say otherwise, till we really get to know Him and experience Him as pure love. Nothing will stop that from happening in our lives. We may think we have trouble believing in His love or trusting Him, or that we have a long way to go in really knowing Him, but God is in charge of this process and He will bring it about. He keeps revealing Himself to us, loving us, being trustworthy, till all the lies and confusion comes tumbling down and we can relax and let ourselves be loved, let ourselves sink into God in trust and assurance.
For He longs for us to know His joy. God is a joyful and merry God. He knows that everything will work out well. He knows that the happy ending has never been in doubt. He knows that every sorrow and pain will end in joy. He is already at the beautiful conclusion and is rejoicing with great joy, and He wants us to enter into His joy. And we can know for sure that He will do this. He will bring us to experience all the joy of God, the joy of heaven. We will be happy forever with a happiness we can't even fathom. All sorrow and pain will be gone.
And we will be fully satisfied and filled to the full with the God of joy Himself. That is the ultimate happiness: to be loved by the One who is pure and infinite love, to rejoice in His rejoicing over us, to know Him fully and experience love relationship with Him to the fullest degree, forever. It is God who truly satisfies. It is God's love we long for, God we long for. And God longs for us and our love. He assures us that all these longings will be fulfilled and we will rejoice in love union with our God forever!
"My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.."
Luke 1:46 (ESV)
A Prayer: Thank You for fulfilling my deepest longings for love and joy. I am humbled to think that I fulfill Your longings for love and joy, too!