I’ve been enjoying Michael Reeves’s book Delighting in the Trinity. The title is an apt description! Reeves shows his readers “how God’s triune being makes all His ways beautiful.” The way he describes God’s love—the kind of love that can only come from a Father, not only for the other Persons of the Trinity but also for us—was actually overwhelming to me. It felt like a glimpse of an answer to Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 3:17–19 that we, “being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.”
Here’s what Reeves says about the Trinity and prayer:
[In Christian prayer,] we join in with the fellowship as the Father, Son and Spirit are already enjoying it. That is, the Son—who is already interceding for us with his Father—brings us to be with him before his Father. Think of the high priest going into the presence of the Lord in the holy of holies: just so the Son takes us before his Father—and there the Spirit helps us (Rom 8:26). And so the Spirit supports us, the Son brings us and the Father—who always delights to hear the prayers of his Son—hears us with joy. With the Son, secure in him, enabled as he is by the Spirit, we pray to our Father.
Now, to pray like this—to pray “Abba” in Jesus’ name, empowered by the Spirit—isn’t just the flashy Christian’s way of showing off his theological virtuosity; it is to revel in the shape of God’s own fellowship and beauty.
As Reeves explains, love and fellowship would be foreign to a single-person god—not native to him but something he may or may not have adopted later—for love is only possible when someone else exists to love. How could we count on our fellowship being welcomed by a single-person god? What if he tired of it and wished to return to his naturally-solitary state?
How different this is from a God who, by nature, has always been in fellowship, expressing love! With this God, fellowship isn’t just possible; it’s the very cause and purpose of creation. Fellowship overflows from our triune God, and our Father calls us into it.
To think we have the opportunity to enter into the fellowship of the Trinity through prayer today—right now!—is beyond incredible. If you need help getting started, go here and take three minutes to hear what Tim Challies has to say about an app called Prayermate that makes it easier to develop a habit of prayer.