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October 16
Your words were found, and I ate them. Your words became my joy and my heart’s delight. For I bear Your name, O LORD God of Hosts. — Jer 15:16 BSB
There is a sweetness in the promises that captivates the heart, a beauty in Christ that wins the soul, and a saving unction and power in the Word of God that, when applied, draws out every secret and sacred affection toward it. Can you sometimes look up and say, “Blessed Jesus, I do love You”? And when the Word of God is opened and applied, made sweet and precious to your soul, have you not felt as though you could kiss the sacred page, as it conveys such sweetness into your heart? This is what it means to embrace a promise in love—throwing your arms around it, drawing it near to your breast, kissing it again and again with love and affection, and taking sweet delight in it, like a bridegroom rejoicing over his bride, now his own, never to be parted. This is rejoicing in God’s Word, delighting in a blessed Jesus, and in the promises that testify of Him and center upon Him.
Have you not felt these sweet embraces in your soul—the truth as it is in Jesus becoming so precious, so fitting, so encouraging, so perfectly suited to every need and woe? Then you are a believer, a child of God; then there is a work of grace upon your heart, and you know the truth for yourself by divine teaching and testimony. You may not yet have had full deliverance or that overpowering revelation where all your doubts and fears are swept away and your soul is settled in the full enjoyment of the gospel's liberty. Maybe you have had it, maybe not. But if you have seen the promises from afar, been persuaded of them, and embraced them in faith, hope, and love, then you bear the mark of being a partaker of the faith of God’s elect.