“Many are the plans in the mind of man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand.” 

As I read that this morning I was thinking about how absolute and simple that is. I scheme and plot my ways to success, but what happens will be the will of God. God does not negotiate with sinners, He listens to the heart of those who love Him. Just as the romantic will find a gift that He knows will capture the heart of his beloved, God knows every desire of our heart and He is motivated by love. He is love. 

Legalism then, was not just a separation of us from God, it also is a separation from us and joy. Joy , a healthy and fulfilled life, our telos, is simply a factor of our proximity to Christ. All things to be will be; surrender them first. Approach the throne. Be zealous over your faith. Not just because we are commanded to be, but because we must. 

“What is desired by man is steadfast love.”

We are not designed to be fulfilled by anything not following us beyond the grave. We are designed to be figureheads of the romance between God the Father and His Son, Jesus. We are outcomes of His great love, which is written into the fabric of our being. God is love, we are reconciled in love through the cross, and we are fulfilled through our bonded love to Him. 

Legalism reinvents itself every century, but is even more pervasive today than in Jesus’ incarnated time. We perceive our desires and dreams as promises, when they are just the constructs of a child living in God’s Kingdom. Remember, what we are ultimately all chasing in those dreams – “Steadfast love”, a fulfilled life, contentment, peace – and those things can have many faces, but God only has one. To know it is to have the rest.