Eternity is, of course, present.
Ever-present.
More so than time's fleeting and elusive "present."
"Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good,
for his love is eternal." (Psalm 136)
Christian prayer is life with God as "our Father in heaven," relating to him as his own Beloved Son relates to him, with Christ's own Spirit in our hearts, and with his very words on our lips.
The great blessing of our gracious salvation is this prayer-that-is-life-with-God.
If you’ve never wrestled with whether you really have a relationship with God, you should.
The Christian faith is this: the relationship that the Beloved Son Jesus has with God the Father, he has graciously shared with us in the gift of his Spirit.
For the Triune God,
to love God with all his being
and to love his neighbor as himself
are the same thing.
Jesus is this God,
God loving us as his neighbor,
God loving us as he loves himself.
"Peace through strength."
Sounds like Pax Romana.
"Peace" through fear.
"Peace" through crucifixion.
Sounds like the devil's kind of strength.
The strength of Jesus is to humbly suffer for love's sake.
The significance of confessing that Jesus is truly and fully God is not to say that he fulfills our presuppositions of divinity ("God must be 'X,' so Jesus must be 'X'"), but it is to say that Jesus defines and reveals divinity to us, usually toppling our presuppositions.
@PLeithart If the mother is unclean for her part in the birth, but the child is (surprisingly?) not also unclean (though coming from and in contact with what is unclean), then it seems a way of drawing attention to the fact that God can bring what is clean out of what is unclean.
Being convicted of your sin in order to confess, ask forgiveness, and repent, might instinctively feel bad. But it's good. It's a major work of the Holy Spirit in your life with God.
The old tomb-world was silent, cold,
'til hurled was Fire, and Light unfurled
his spire-high wings. Now we admire.
Now sings the gold-world to its King.