“Lord, you are Lord and I want to live with you”.
Part 7: The paradox of love: to give is to receive; to lose yourself is to gain everything; to kneel in service is to be exalted
Some people might object to the hierarchy that has come into the relationship – as though that is somehow negative or demeaning and so bad. But notice how immediately this sense of hierarchy – if we call it that for now – has entered the situation. In the very moment of recognising the worth of God, where “God” is used here just as his personal name, we immediately move onto naming him “Lord” as an intrinsic element in recognising his worth. We cannot recognise the supreme preciousness of God’s nature without immediately wanting to put ourself under his will. Putting ourselves “under” his will is entirely right, but in this egalitarian age may still raise some people’s hackles, so let’s continue to address the issue. If I say, “We immediately want to align ourselves with God’s will, to be in tune with his will, to be within his will, this removes connotations of subservience in that it emphasises that we are making a completely free choice, and are in alliance with God. However, I don’t think we should be ashamed to acknowledge the Lordship of God because this is an integral element of recognising God’s worth. We are not thinking of God as someone in tune with me, but a bit more expert, like putting ourselves under the tuition of a personal trainer, we are recognizing that when we appreciated the worth of God it required a response of putting his nature and will first in our lives. God is not like me; I am not like him. We are not kindred spirits. We are not equal. He is different to me, but I want to become like him. This was our free choice, based on our personal value judgement that “The Lord is Lord”. The second part of the statement, in whatever form we want to phrase it, “And I want to live with you” flows seamlessly from this recognition that the Lord is Lord.
Spiritual Devotion 