A Period of Devotion

Question: What is devotion?

God’s answer:

When we marry God, we pledge our devotion to Him. Just as God promises that He will never leave us, likewise we also say: I am never leaving you.

When Jesus marries us, this is a two-fold marriage. We marry Jesus as true man and Jesus as God. Thus, this is not a marriage between equals but a commitment to be devoted to God as our self and as our King (He who rules us), and to commit to “loving Him with all our soul, our heart and our power.” Thus, we are:

1. devoted to Jesus, as true man: – We love Him as our self. We identify with Him. The past is gone. He is now and forever more who we are.

2. devoted to Jesus, as our God, our Father, our King and our ruler – We are a loving, trusting and obedient child who serves Him and His kingdom forever.

From the start of this journey, God brings about many external and internal experiences to bring us to this point. Many terms have been used to describe these experiences like St. John of the Cross' “darkness of the senses “ and “darkness of the soul”. This is the time when God wraps-up everything, and puts everything that we went through to their proper perspective.

According to God, how long the situations/experiences He gives us drag on varies for every person. It is only by the grace of God that we attain the graces we need to be devoted to God but the speed by which we receive them depends on our willingness to accept.

God’s statement:

In the last Chapter: Living in Faith, God explains that faith is founded in trust, dependence and love. It is in this station where our faith becomes whole.

Closure

God’s statement:

Meaning: This is a time of closure, when:

• we leave our past behind: our cynicism about people, love and relationships(You are not jaded) and,

• our skepticism about God (You accept Me without a doubt).

God brings us back to the state of complete idealism before our life experiences marred us.

As God explained: “You believe who I Am and that I AM”

You believe who I Am: We believe that Jesus is not an imperfect person but a perfect one. He is “true man”, and thus our experience and knowledge of human nature does not apply to Him.

You believe that I AM: We believe that it is truly God to whom we are giving ourselves and everything to. We no longer doubt that it is He who is leading us, talking with us and controlling us, and we trust that everything that He has told us about who He is are all true.