What More Can I Ask for Than to Desire God?

Book 3, Chapter 34: To the Disciple Who Loves, God is Sweet Above All Things and in All Things.

Chapter Focus: This whole chapter could be a prayer. Put yourself in a prayerful demeanor and read through it; you’ll see what I mean.
When we love God above everything else we put Him in His rightful place in our lives. In older parlance, we “renounce” everything else to follow God. This is not a negative renunciation but a positive choice. When we understand what He offers, we gladly set aside everything else, albeit some things more slowly than others. At its essence, our existence with God is a seeking after Him, asking Him to feed us because we know that only He can “satisfy all of our needs according to His riches in glory (Phil 4:19).”
The Disciple finds happiness and joy in the Word made flesh. When Jesus gives us His flesh, we are asked to “taste and see that the Lord is good.” When we discover that His “flesh is true food and His blood true drink

(Jn 6:55),” we understand the sweetness and joy because we are fed and satisfied.

Finally, after all this praise and thanksgiving, Thomas asks God to set the world right with His mighty Hand. I found this particularly interesting and oh-so-human: after “buttering up” God, Thomas asks God to please fix everything so it will be right. I know I’ve asked this of our Lord a time or two.

Scripture Memory Prayer: “Taste and see that the Lord is good.” (Psalm 34:9)
Question: What more can you ask for than to desire God?
Key Quote: My God, my all!

1. What more can I ask for, than to desire God?
2. To all who taste the Lord, what can be distasteful?
3. Lord let Your holy Light pierce the inmost depths of my heart.
4. Lord, rise up and help me.

The Text of Chapter 34: To the Disciple Who Loves, God is Sweet Above All Things and in All Things.

Behold, God is mine, and all things are mine! What more can I ask for, and what more happy thing can I desire? O delightful and sweet world! that is, to him that loves the Word, not the world, and not the things that are in the world (1 Jn 2:15). My God, my all! To him that understands, that word suffices, and to repeat it often is pleasing to those who love it.

God is Sweet

When You are present all things are pleasant. When You are absent, all things are wearisome. You make the heart to be at rest, give it deep peace and festal joy. You make my heart able to think rightly in every matter, and in every matter to give You praise. Nothing can provide pleasure very long without You, but if it would be pleasant or taste sweet, Your grace must be there. It is Your wisdom which must give it a sweet savor.

My God, my all!

To All Who Taste You… Oh, Light Everlasting!!

2. To all who taste You, what can be distasteful? And to the one who does not taste You, what is there which can make him joyous? But the worldly-wise, and they who enjoy the flesh, these fail in Your wisdom. For in the wisdom of the world is found utter vanity, and to be carnally minded is death. But they who follow after You by putting aside worldly things, and through mortification of the flesh, are found to be truly wise because they are carried from vanity to verity, from the flesh to the spirit. They taste that the Lord is good (Ps 34:8), and whatever good they find in creatures, they count it all unto the praise of the Creator. Unlike, yes, very unlike is the enjoyment of the Creator to the enjoyment of the Creature, the enjoyment of eternity and of time, of light uncreated and of light reflected.

3. O Light everlasting, surpassing all created lights, dart down Your ray from on high which shall pierce the inmost depths of my heart. Give purity, joy, clearness, and life to my spirit so that with all its powers it may cleave to You with a rapture passing all understanding. Oh when shall that blessed and longed-for time come when You shall satisfy me with Your Presence, and be to me All in all? So long as this is delayed, my joy shall not be full. Still, ah me! the old man lives in me (Rm 6:6): not yet crucified, not yet quite dead; still lusting fiercely against the spirit, waging inward wars, and not allowing the soul’s kingdom to be at peace.

4. But You Who rule the raging of the sea, and still its waves when they arise, rise up and help me. Scatter the people that delight in war (Ps 68:30). Destroy them by Your power. Show forth, I beseech You, Your might, and let Your right hand be glorified, for I have no hope, no refuge, except in You, O Lord my God.