A Psalm of David, when he was in the wilderness of Judah;

"O God, You are my God; I shall seek You earnestly;
My soul thirsts for You, my flesh yearns for You,
In a dry and weary land where there is no water.
Thus I have seen You in the sanctuary,
To see Your power and Your glory.
Because Your lovingkindness is better than life,
My lips will praise You." [Psalm 63:1-3]

These verses were, I think, read at our last corporate gathering. To David, nothing else matters but the knowledge of God - something he sums up in the phrase, "your lovingkindness (or "steadfast love" - NRSV) is better than life". When we have this, surely we are ready to face anything.

There will be times in life for us all, when it feels like a wilderness, a dry desert. When nobody or nothing seems there for you, even God. Or maybe when everything seems to be against you, when life seems empty, pointless, not worth the struggle, just too hard. We are left alone and nothing else matters but the lovingkindness of God. We have access to God the Father, he is there for us and nothing can snatch his steadfast love from us.

As well as giving us strength when we are weak, this experienced reality is also our greatest witness, the key to mission and the communication of the gospel to those around us. There was a time when some in Judah would experience a renewal of God's lovingkindness and it was said, "Thus says the Lord of hosts, 'In those days ten men from all the nations will grasp the garment of a Jew, saying, "Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you." ' " [Zech. 8:23]. People need to see reality, the reality of God and his steadfast love in us.

But how do we know this reality, how do we experience this love and have this assurance for ourselves? We must know that it is both possible and available to us all. That the Christian life is not just about dry head knowledge of God and his acts, but that through our Lord Jesus, he touches, he empowers, he overwhelms us with the experience of his love and his presence. That is the normal Christian experience, and it is made available to all his children. No longer just the select few, but to all - young/old, male/female, Jew/Gentile, slave/free. Our Father wants us to have this deep assurance of his love for us.

This is the great gift of God to us, there is no question about that. But just because it is a gift does not mean that we do nothing. We are to ask, to pursue, to diligently seek after this gift, this reality. We see that David wastes no time, early he seeks after God. This has become a holy preoccupation, even when he awakes through the night - he mediates upon God. He remembers his works, his faithfulness, his memories of encountering God in the sanctuary and his heart sings of this reality, his soul clings to the Lord. Yes, there are those who oppose him, but he trusts in the sovereignty and justice of his God.

Have you known this love, has Jesus become your passionate preoccupation? I encourage you, as his word invites, to ask, to knock, to seek, to open wide your mouth that God might fill you with the unsearchable riches of Christ, with his very self. This is our need, this is our inheritance. Tomorrow is Valentine's Day and much in our culture is made of human love, which is but a reflection (and a pale one at times), of our Father's perfect and steadfast love for us. Let us use this coming season of Lent to pursue the presence of God personally and corporately. I encourage the ladies to take the oppportunity to gather on Wednesday evenings for this very purpose. But men also, let us not be satisfied with an informed mind, but ask for a ravished heart, for the adventure of knowing, loving, and serving Christ.