Daily Devotionals

Bowen's Daily Meditations

Devotional: May 9th

"In thy presence is fullness of joy." - Psalms 16:11.

In the place where there is nothing to hinder the full perception of the glory of God, there is fullness of joy. The most we can do in this world is to get a conception, faint at the best, of beatific joy. As we perceive the presence of him who once became manifest in our nature, loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood, we experience joy unspeakable; but we cannot describe our experience as fullness of joy, without declaring that the company of the ungodly is as blessed as that of angels; the sense of imperfection as sweet as that of perfection; ignorance as good as consummate knowledge; liability to temptation as enviable a state as that of inviolable security. If we have here the presence of God, we have here also the presence of a great deal that is inimical to the glory of God. Creation groans beneath this, and day and night crieth out, "How long, Lord, how long? It waits for the manifestation of the sons of God, which will be the manifestation of God; for the descent of the new Jerusalem, which will be the advent of our expected Lord; for the new heaven and the new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness, even the Lord of righteousness with his righteous ones. Then all that now prohibits the full revelation of the Redeemer’s glory, will have been burnt up.

In that world of perfection to which we aspire, our eyes shall not be able to light upon anything that is not filled with all the fullness of God. All beings, all objects there, will be, as it were, reservoirs charged with the perpetual fulfilling of our joy; and nothing can be withdrawn from the cistern of our experience without the eagerly proffered supplies of innumerable fountains. The desire of Christ, that his joy may be fulfilled in us, will there be realized. The bliss of God himself will be drunk in by the infinite one whose name is Love, through our experiences. Having the image of God, we shall have his felicity.

-