Deeper Than Deep

Rich Mullins once recorded a song entitled “If I Stand” (on his album entitled Stuff of Earth), which included these words:
“There’s more that dances on the prairie than the wind
And more that pulses in the oceans than the tide.
There’s a love that is fiercer than the love between friends,
More gentle than a mother’s, when a baby’s at her side.
There’s a loyalty that’s deeper than mere sentiment
And a music higher than the songs that I can sing.
The stuff of earth competes for the allegiance
That I owe only to the Giver of all good things.”

We work and sweat to get lots of money; but what we really want is security. We pursue pleasures; but what we really want is joy. We become activists; but what we really want is purpose. We pop in a CD, sit cross-legged on the floor in a room surrounded by large windows, close our eyes, inhale deeply, and find ourselves in some enchanted sunny, flowery meadow where birds sing sweetly and butterflies smile at us; but what we really want is peace. We strategize and entice for intimacy; but what we really want is love.

Thus, we begin to understand the love and grace of the Holy Spirit when He teaches us in Philippians 4:6-7 to “Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” Notice that when you “let your requests be made known unto God,” He does not promise here to grant your every request; but He does promise a peace, “which passes all understanding.”

“Be not ye therefore like unto [the heathen]: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him” (Matthew 6:8); and “my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19). So take comfort, because “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance” (Galatians 5:22-23).