In today’s Episode of Known & Loved we conclude our Rest Assured series.

Colossians 2:3 refers to Jesus as: Christ in whom are hidden all the treasures. He is the ONE true treasure that will not fade away. Joy and pleasures forevermore are an unfading treasure for your eternity, but that richness is also available to you RIGHT now, in every moment that you place yourself in his presence. Where can we find pleasures forevermore? There is only one way. Jesus is the way!

Jesus’ life, death and resurrection, the story of his redemption of our souls, salvation for our lives and his coming again in glory is not just one more fairy tale to add to the heap. It is the one true story to which all other stories point. The Gospel is our bedrock for now and our hope for later. Those who know Jesus and call him Lord and Savior are a part of His Story. He is both our One True Story and our One True treasure. The question we must ask is this: How are we to live into the GREAT story?

Today we connect Psalm 16 with the story of Martha and Mary in Luke chapter 10. Here we find that each day we choose. We choose to run around by the tyranny of the urgent, fretting over things we cannot control and over the things we think we can control and all the “to do’s” on our list, and worry about not having enough time to do any of them. Or we choose the ONE THING we need- and sit at the feet of Jesus. Jesus even tells us which is the better choice— so choose what IS better!

Today we look to where we can find true joy. Psalm 16: 11 says: “In Your presence is fullness of joy; At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” There is only one place where we can be filled with true joy! There is only one place where joy flows abundantly and eternally: In the presence of Jesus. If we struggle with experiencing true joy, we have to ask ourselves this tough question: Where am I? We have a choice each day— we can place ourselves in the presence of the Lord every day. If we make this choice we find true joy.

In today’s episode of Known & Loved we look at who God is- and that He IS big enough. We examine His attributes and why we can trust Him, because not only is He eternal and outside of time, He intersected the timeline to rescue us!

We also look at His intentions for us in times of suffering or difficulty. God intends for us to give thanks in all circumstances— to be praying continuously through every circumstance, never losing hold of the joy we have in Him, while giving thanks, not necessarily for the suffering, but even in the midst of it. Here we find Psalm 16:11 is true- You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.

The first time I found Grace drawing on herself I opened the palms of her hands and saw crosses and hearts on one hand, and "I LOVE GOD!" inscribed on the other. She looked up at me and said: “It’s because I just LOVE him so MUCH!” I want to love Jesus in a way that is “written” all over me. When my palms are open they are raised in delight of him and when my palms are clenched in fists I am holding on to him tightly, never wanting to be separated from him or his love. In a way, it seemed Grace’s love was imitating how Jesus loves. She wrote it on her hands, just like he did…

See, I will not forget you, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands. (Isaiah 49:16) (NIV 2002)

What makes you forget that you love God? What is the result? More importantly, how do you get back to him? I don’t know what makes you forget about God, but I know how we can get back to him! Remember who you are! Remember who loves you, and remember who you love. It is spelled out in Psalm 51 where we see David remember his one true love, go back to God, and become transformed. We continue to examine verses Psalm 9-10 and pair them with Psalm 51 to illustrate our SOUL SECURITY rests with Jesus, our one true love who knows and loves us.

Have you ever lost a child? If not, maybe you’ve been a lost child? Or maybe as a grown up you’ve just been lost in a scary place that you know is no place to be. If you’ve had any of these experiences you know to your core how desperate you feel in that moment. The question is— to what degree do we realize our spiritual lost-ness? We wander around the world looking for “home” searching for security, unfortunately, for many of us we wander endlessly lost, even with God right on our heels pursuing us. We try to compensate by finding other means of “comfort” and “security” from this world. We foolishly believe these will satisfy us but we know deep down that they don’t deliver. How can we be rescued from our lostness? JESUS is the answer!