Hallelujah! I have found Him
Whom my soul so long has craved!
Jesus satisfies my longings;
Through His blood I now am saved.¹

Satisfied.

What a beautiful and perfect covenant it is that satisfies the infinite righteousness and eternal love of the Lord of Hosts yet is mindful of me, to satisfy the searching of my soul. “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied” (Matthew 5:6).

“The Spirit and the Bride say, ‘Come.’ And let the one who hears say, ‘Come.’ And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price” (Revelation 22:17). How glorious that we who are thirsty and desiring of the water of life may still take it freely. How cool and sweet and pure it is! It is beyond price and obtained without payment. In great mercy and grace the Lord has passed through my Samaria and has spoken such curious and good news – that I need not draw water from earth again. He has met me at my broken cistern and shepherded me to a fountain that never runs dry. And there I have found the Scripture to be true, “With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation” (Isaiah 12:3).

Our Father is faithful to provide for my every need. The least of His riches are far better than the sum of the world’s treasures. Just a drop of His grace outweighs oceans of human striving. His name is the LORD who Provides. As He sent the manna in the wilderness, He daily sustains me by His Word. And though it is not I who bring payment or provision, it is He who Sees for Himself a Lamb.

Truly no man can ransom another
or give to God the price of his life,
for the ransom of their life is costly
and can never suffice.
Psalm 49:7-8

But He is merciful and says,

Deliver him from going down to the pit;
I have found a ransom.
Job 33:24

As when He began His work in me, so it has continually been thus far. He knows all the days ordained for me and the needs of each one. “As your days, so shall your strength be” (Deuteronomy 33:25). For it will never be my strength, but only His:

He gives power to the faint,
and to him who has no might He increases strength.
Even youths shall faint and be weary,
and young men shall fall exhausted;
but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength;
they shall mount up with wings like eagles;
they shall run and not be weary;
they shall walk and not faint.
Isaiah 40:30-31

How I need to remind myself every day of what the Lord has done for me! How I need to trust the great love He lavishes on me! How I need His heavenly perspective to assure my heart. Because He remembers me continually, because I am inscribed on the palms of His hands, He has willingly forgotten my sin and no longer holds my transgressions against me. He chose me before the foundation of the world and predestined me for adoption, and not an adoption at arm’s length, but by a Spirit crying “Abba! Father!” He has made me accepted – now, despite my imperfections – in the Beloved.

I will greatly rejoice in the LORD;
my soul shall exult in my God,
for He has clothed me with the garments of salvation;
He has covered me with the robe of righteousness,
as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress,
and as a bride adorns herself with jewels.
Isaiah 61:10

Jesus took on my humanity and bore my sin that I might be clothed in His righteousness. What more can I do? What more do I need? My God and Father has caused me to stand holy and blameless before Him according to His will and has seated me with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. I need not say with Adam, “I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself” (Genesis 3:10). I need not cover my sin with the blood of bulls and goats or the dirty rags of my good deeds. No, for He has carried my cross on His shoulders and placed His royal robe on mine, and I may boldly come near to the throne of grace and dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

How lovely is Your dwelling place,
O LORD of Hosts!
My soul longs, yes, faints
for the courts of the LORD;
my heart and flesh sing for joy
to the living God.
Even the sparrow finds a home,
and the swallow a nest for herself,
where she may lay her young,
at Your altars, O LORD of Hosts,
my King and my God.
Psalm 84:1-3

It is a peculiar truth that as a bondservant I am free, that I who once was a slave to sin, to fear, and to my accuser, should find freedom under the shadow of my Master’s wings. My Redeemer has bought me at the highest price and set me free.

Forever Free.

May I cease striving and know that He is God, that He will be exalted among the nations and in all the earth, that He does as He chooses, and nothing can stay His hand. All that He says will come to pass, and He has assured me that He will keep me from stumbling and present me blameless before the presence of His glory with great joy. The only God, my Savior, began His work in me by the Spirit and will complete it, not by my works in the flesh, but through His own righteousness credited to me and perfected in me by the power that raised Jesus from the dead. Nothing more can be added; it is finished.

It is finished, it is finished,
Tetelestai,
No longer need I labor for His love,
For Christ fulfilling the Law of God
Was deemed by God to be enough.²

I need to stop – stop trying to earn God’s love, stop trying to prove my stature as His child, and stop minimizing His grace by casting it in the shadow of a looming mountain of requirements and religious inventories. I need to stand firm and not submit again to a yoke of slavery.

I am no longer under law, but under grace and led by the Spirit. I am no longer instructed by the tutor, but by the Wonderful Counselor and Mighty God Himself. He has high standards, but it is not I who live, rather it is Christ who lives in me.

So I will stand in the gospel. I will build all my life and hope on the bedrock of grace. And I will rest, knowing that the battle is the Lord’s, that it has already been won, that my enemies have been put to open shame, and that I can walk day by day beside the Lord with my head held high as more than a conqueror.

 

1.  “Satisfied,” Clara T. Williams
2. “It is Finished,” Jimmy Needham