Luke 3:22b

"Thou art my beloved Son, in Thee I am well pleased."

What pleases God more than anything else? His Son, Jesus. And what does God love more than anything else? His beloved Son, Jesus. Nothing, absolutely nothing, can surpass Jesus in the heart, eyes and mind of God. When the Spirit had descended upon Christ in bodily form like a dove, God compellingly and audibly spoke (cf. Luke 3:22a) so that those who witnessed could hear and be unmistakably sure that Jesus was the One, He was of God and the three of them (including the Spirit) were inseparable. God loves Jesus, and Jesus pleases Him to no end.

How can I please God? How can I be loved of God? It's natural to deduce that if I am going to please God and be loved by Him, then I must know and love the Son. And to know Him I must be made complete with the indwelling of the Spirit. The Spirit, too, has descended upon me and we're now inseparable. And because of that, I am now part of God. Because I have the Spirit I'm known by Him. This is my starting point; without the Spirit I have nowhere to go with God.

But now that I possess the Spirit, I want to love Jesus more, with everything I have and with every ounce of my being. But how do I do that? By simply being in Him. This is called perichoresis. (A new term for me that was coined by a 4th Century theologian. It means to interact or interject around and within.) I don't want to be near Him, I want to be in Him. I am in Him, no doubt, but to grasp that and live that as I think, sleep, drink, eat, speak, walk, work, rest, parent, play, read, study and live is perhaps the true essence of joy IN Jesus and glory to God. The two go hand-in-hand and the mere existence of them together pleases the Father to no end. Jesus in me (cf. John 15:5)... this is a profound truth I've only partially begun to grasp. 'Father, be pleased in me.'