To possess God is to have an all-sufficient object for all our nature.
He who has God for his very own has the fountain of life in himself,
has the spring of living water, as it were, in his own courtyard, and
needs not to go elsewhere to draw. He need fear no loss, for his wealth
is so engrained in the very substance of his being that nothing can rob
him of it but himself, and that whilst he lasts it will last with,
because in, him.
How marvellous that into the narrow room of one poor soul He should
come whom the heaven of heavens cannot contain! Solomon said, 'How much
less this house which I have built,'--well may we say the same of our
little hearts. But He can compress Himself into that small compass and
expand His abode by dwelling in it.
Nor is the blessedness of being possessed by Him less than the
blessedness of possessing Him. For so long as we own ourselves we are
burdens to ourselves, and we only own ourselves truly when we give
ourselves away utterly. Earthly love, with its blessed mysteries of
mutual possession, teaches us that. But all its depth and joy are as
nothing when set beside the liberty, the glad peace, the assured
possession of our enriched selves, which are ours when we give
ourselves wholly to God, and so for the first time are truly lords of
ourselves, and find ourselves by losing ourselves in Him.
Nor need we fear to say that God, too, delights in that mutual
possession, for the very essence of love is the desire to impart
itself, and He is love supreme and perfect. Therefore is He glad when
we let Him give Himself to us, and moved by 'the mercies of God, yield
ourselves to Him a sacrifice of a sweet smell, acceptable to God.'