How do we view our God who is our Master? Because the way we view Him has great relevance to our life. Trusting and obeying Him plays the main role in the way we view Him. When we trust and obey Him in all our activities, He is to us the God of love, truth, peace, grace and mercy; our relationship with Him is at a different level, a higher level. Walking in Him gives a true perspective of who He is. Many having not understood it seek the fulfillment of many and greater things from Him. When they do not obtain them, they are disappointed. Then, they feel He has forgotten them. Yet, He never forgets His children who depend on Him. He has made Himself known to them so that they are with joy, peace and comfort. God’s intent in having an intimate relationship with His children is that they remain with Him forever and enjoy all things He reserved for them. Everything He plans is for this sole purpose. So, when they trust and obey Him, depend on Him and seek Him, He makes Himself known as the best.“His mouth is full of sweetness. And he is wholly desirable. This is my beloved and this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem” (Song. 5:16).
God appears to us with sweet things. He makes Himself desirable to us. When we do that which His children must do, He speaks to us the things that bring us immeasurable joy. Each time we seek His will He gives the best answer. And though sometimes it may not be appeasing at that moment, it is the best, since He has planned it for our well being. Though we may not understand it fully, it is still the best, because He brings it to completion. Though we may not see it being effective as we would like, it is the best, since He intends to bring forth better and untold consequences. All we must do is trust Him and be obedient in accepting and carrying out His answer. His mouth is full of sweetness and there will be no bitter outcome to His answer. By our intimacy with Him He has become our beloved and friend, and He does not disappoint us.
Many times Christians fail to grasp His sweetness. The reason is complacency and sometimes disobedience. Because of this, they do not see Him working for them as in other times. He always comes with sweet things; in fact, this is His desire all the way. But by becoming complacent or self-satisfied in the course of doing His will they fail to continue in passion toward His will. They become satisfied with the good things He provided during the course of His will. It is His way to provide good things when performing His will! And when they lose sight of His will, they do not see Him working for them further. For this reason, we ought to always check ourselves for complacency. The good things He gives are His blessings and rewards for our courage to trust and obey Him. They are a foretaste of the greater things He reserved for us in the times ahead.
Again, we ought to be watchful that we do not become disobedient. Disobedience can surface in many ways. It is by departing from God’s will mid-way, adding other things to His will, taking a short cut rather than waiting on Him, not pursuing holiness and righteousness, wasting His blessings and rewards through unwise choices or pursuing the glory of men. When we are constantly checking ourselves for these, we are continuing to trust and obey Him. The brighter side of it is that God comes to us with more sweet things. This is His way of adding to His will. He adds to expand the will He has given us. And, we can figure out the kind of consequences. The Spirit in John said, “In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men” (John 1:4). God appeared as Christ with life for our sake. The life that was in Him is the right to become the children of God. In other words, a child of God lives perpetually. That right avails a splendid advantage. It is His favor for sweet things. For this reason, He wishes we trust and obey Him, depend on Him and seek Him. The sweet things as much as are for our joy and peace simultaneously play significant role in fulfilling His wish for mankind. They demonstrate the Light of men. Through the sweet things He bestows on us He makes Himself wholly desirable to those that believe in Him.
The apostles received instruction to preach the gospel. It was sweetness from the mouth of God. They rejoiced at everything God was accomplishing for them in Christ. Because they trusted and obeyed Him, He kept adding more to His sweetness. It brought great joy and comfort to those that believed Him. He made Himself wholly desirable to believers by reassuring that He does not desert them. And when gentile Christians were troubled by Jewish Christians, He intervened through the apostles and brought peace. The apostles wrote to the gentiles, “that you abstain from things sacrificed to idols and from blood and from things strangled and from fornication; if you keep yourselves free from such things, you will do well. Farewell” (Acts 15:29). They were leading Christians and delegating God’s will to them. Christians continued to taste the sweetness of God; God remained to them their beloved and friend.
Similarly, God always spelled His sweetness through Paul. He led him to pen the following in his letters with a purpose. “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Cor. 1:3). It was His wish demonstrated through Paul. God who always desires to give sweetness to His children intended to lead them to it through His message in Paul. He pointed out their complacency and disobedience. He taught them to be passionate for His will and not miss His sweetness. Throughout his gospel work Paul dwelt on God’s grace and peace. He knew they reflected His sweetness. Because of them he was able to desire Him wholly in all his activities. Therefore, he also charged believers saying, “Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance. It is the Lord Christ whom you serve” (Col. 3:23-24).
He warned them of complacency and disobedience. He encouraged them to do all works, i.e. the works by the Lord’s will, for the Lord. He even gave them the consequence, i.e. the reward the Lord has in store for them. So, when you are given good works to serve the Lord, remember that they are God’s sweetness to you. To do them heartily you recognized them from the works of the flesh. Then, you cannot do them for men. You do not doubt the consequences or the effect of your works. As Jesus said it is like a man who plants the seed in the soil and goes to bed at night. When he wakes up at day, the seed sprouts and grows without his knowledge. This is the knowledge of serving Christ. He leads you in the paths where His sweetness does not become vain. When you are a Christian, you are His servant. And of you it has been said, “But whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him” (1 John 2:5).
Everything God instructs us is His Word to us. It includes His law and His will to us. The Word that reveals His will is the sweetness of His mouth to us. By it we know the work or works we ought to perform for His glory. As we do them, He adds to them. Then, we obtain the unwavering love of God. Just as love exists in God so also it dwells in us. In fact, God Himself, the epitome of love lives in us. We demonstrate the Light of men. And when our time to do good works on earth is done, we have the ultimate reward of inheritance, a birthright reserved for us. Relating to this, it has been written beforehand, “And they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, ‘Come up here.’ Then they went up into heaven in the cloud, and their enemies watched them” (Rev. 11:12).