August 28 is the Feast Day of Augustine (AD 354-430), who was the Bishop of Hippo (North Africa). St. Augustine is considered a one of the great Doctors of the Church. In his famous work, “Confessions,” he wrote about his conversion to Christianity, which didn’t happen until he was 30 years old. His mother, Monica, prayed for him constantly, but Augustine thought Christianity was an inferior religion. He also wanted to live a life free to pursue sexual pleasure. Eventually he came to see the falsehoods of philosophy and the bankruptcy his own moral failures. He gave his life to Jesus and never looked back.

I have been reading “Confessions,” and I have to admit, it hasn’t been easy! It is an amazing story, but it’s a bit slow going. The other night I read this passage and thought that this sums it all up. Not just Augustine’s thoughts, but our relationship with God. He wrote:

O Lord, far be it from the heart of your servant who confesses to you, far be it from me to think that whatever joy I feel makes me truly happy. For there is a joy that is not given to those who do not love you, but only to those who love you for your own sake. You yourself are their joy. Happiness is to rejoice in you and for you and because of you. This is true happiness and there is no other. Those who think there is another kind of happiness look for joy elsewhere, but theirs is not true joy.

May this be our prayer as we journey through this life. May we not settle for any counterfeit joy that is not God Himself. As you give thanks to God today for Augustine, meditate upon these Scriptures:

Hebrews 12:22-24, 28-29:

22 But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, 23 and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, 24 and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.28 Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, 29 for our God is a consuming fire. (ESV)

John 17:1-8:

17:1 When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, 2 since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. 3 And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. 4 I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. 5 And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.6 “I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. 7 Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you. 8 For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. (ESV)

O LORD God, who is the light of the minds that know You, the life of the souls that Love You, and the strength of the hearts that serve You: Help us, after the example of Your servant Saint Augustine, so to know You that we may truly love You, so to love You that we may fully serve You, whom to serve is perfect freedom; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Shane+