The righteous will see and fear; they will laugh at him,
saying, “Here now is the man who did not make God his
stronghold but trusted in his great wealth and grew strong by
destroying others!” But I am like an olive tree flourishing in the
house of God; I trust in God’s unfailing love for ever and ever. I
will praise you forever for what you have done; in your name I
will hope, for your name is good. I will praise you in
the presence of your saints.
—Psalm 52:6–9
Philosopher and theologian Thomas Aquinas says, “For no one can truly love God, unless he has the Holy Spirit abiding in his soul, for we do not come to God before the grace of God, but it comes to us first.”
Transformation comes when we accept the gift of grace and turn away from our natural disposition to worship ourselves. It is then that the depth and dimension of the revealed truth of Scripture begins to crystallize, and we begin to see and feel and understand with new eyes and a new heart: “I love those who love me, and those who seek me find me” (Proverbs 8:17).
Discerning the love of God comes from the Spirit of God that is placed within the heart as a deposit, which then allows us to say with Paul, “We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us” (1 Corinthians 2:12).
—Eric Kampmann, Signposts