1 Peter 3:18 For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, in order to bring you to God.

We were made to be attracted to glorious things.  It’s why we are always striving for the biggest and best.  But it is the glory of God – the One who “stretches out the heavens like a canopy, and spreads them out like a tent to live in; who brings out he starry host one by one, can calls them each by name (Isaiah 40:22, 26) - that satisfies and gives us lasting happiness.

My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become^[a] my disciples. As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love.  I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.

We were made to crave nearness to God, and to experience joy in that proximity to Him.   To be filled with hope and joy so that it overflows from us, and washes over those around us.  Attend to your joy in the Lord, because that is the source of your strength.  Spend time with Jesus in the morning, filling yourself up with Him, before the world tries to fill you up with other things.

O Lord of hosts, how lovely is your dwelling place.  My soul longs for the courts of the Lord, my heart and my flesh sing for joy to the living God.  Happy are those whose strength is in you, in whose heart are the highways to Zion.  Amen (Psalm 84:1-5)