Longing Only for God

You, God, are my God, earnestly I seek you; I thirst for you, my whole being longs for you, in a dry and parched land where there is no water. Psalm 63:1

David sought God with every fiber of his being.

David craved God. He longed for God as one longs for water when parched.

Like David’s longing for God, what do you seek?

What does your flesh cry out for?

What deep longing do you yearn to satisfy?

Love? Acceptance? Worth? Money? Power? Influence? Authority?

Or do you, too, long for God as David did?

Let’s go back to Psalm 63 and think about the last time you were thirsty. I mean really parched. Wasn’t that deep drink of water incredibly satisfying?

It’s as if when drinking it, your cells immediately cried out for joy.

Maybe you refilled your cup, drinking another entire glass just as quickly. You set the glass down and instantly felt better. Why? Because your human self is dependent on water and when your cells are deprived, they begin to shrivel up and die.

We were also created to crave God like our body craves water and nourishment. When we don’t have God in our life, we begin to crave other things to fill the empty space. Other things from the world like worth, acceptance, and love. And when we don’t choose God to fill our empty space, we begin to shrivel up and die.

Finding your worth in this world finds yourself bowing to your flesh instead of God.

Craving acceptance in this world finds yourself bowing to whims and fads instead of God.

Longing for love in this world will find yourself lonely and desperate as you seek the love from this world instead of God.

Allow God to fill you instead with Himself. Any area of your life where you feel that deep longing, give it to God. Tell Him what you’re longing and ask Him to help you.

As one who follows God, we know what to do. We know God’s living water is unlimited and always available.

Yet old habits are hard to stop. We often begin relying on ourselves when issues arise, instead of drinking from God’s powerful well of life.

Return to your first love: God. Write down or speak to Him all the ways you’ve neglected to put Him first. You know.

Repent. And ask Him to help you put Him first once again. He will. And the next time you’re tempted to live from within yourself alone, repent once more, asking Him to lead you. As you purposely place God first, it will become easier and easier to depend only on Him. And as He leads you, your soul will once again long only for Him.

Ephesians 4:27

And give no opportunity to the devil. Ephesians 4:27

How many opportunities do you hand the devil?

During the day, how many times do you seek yourself over others?

Your selfish whims over the needs of your family?

How many times do you listen to the lies the devil whispers into your ear?

He’s there, literally all the time, wanting to influence you.

Wanting to fill you with his poison.

Whenever you listen to his lies, you give the devil an opportunity in your life.

Whenever you agree with him, you give the devil an opportunity to influence you.

When you submit to fear, you hand the devil a foothold.

The Bible, God’s precious word to us, asks us to give the devil no opportunity in our life.

And yet we regularly do.

Why?

Because our flesh agrees with the devil.

We agree we are unworthy.

We agree we are unlovable.

We agree we should be number one.

As humans, we are vulnerable to lies from the pit of hell.

But with God, we can withstand the evil onslaught catered specifically for our fears.

God declares we should not give any opportunities to the devil.

Yet we do.

Stop.

Stop agreeing with lies.

Stop agreeing we are weak.

And stop agreeing we are less than.

God has won the war.

God is and was and will be the ultimate victor.

Choose to agree with God.

And choose to give no opportunity to the devil.

Photos by Giulia BertelliTim MossholderNadine ShaabanaAnwaar Ali, & Patrick Fore on Unsplash

The Other Side

Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. Ephesians 5:17

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The devil is laughing.

Literally full of glee.

People are so dumb and we give him plenty to chuckle about.

8th grade boys writing about how dumb serving the less fortunate is.

A daughter who ignores her parents and sneaks out anyhow.

A student who steals answers from his teacher.

A cell phone which demands the attention of the husband, ignoring real life instead.

A company who devalues their workers, looking instead at the bottom line.

An advertising company selling inferior products, lying to their loyal customers.

A news show inflaming facts, intentionally stretching the truth to anger the population.

And that’s just the things we see…..

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A child’s snide remark, confirming the lie in the mother’s head, declaring her unfit.

A bully’s words sinking into a teen, confirming their lowered status.

A boss devaluing his employee through unnecessary long hours away from home.

A young adult who moves out turning her face from God despite her upbringing.

The devil is laughing.

Because we are so fooled.

He shows us people with whom to compare, stirring jealousy and discontent.

He creates doubt in our abilities whether it is dinner, meetings, or haircuts.

He causes anger when he convinces us how important we are compared to others.

Why do we fall for his foolish ways?

Because we are human.

Fallen.

We choose it.

But there is another choice.

Life.

Specifically, the tree of life.

Remember the Garden?

There was a choice handed to Adam and Eve.

If you eat, and disobey God, you will be like Him.

You know what happened.

Folks, the devil has been laughing at us from almost the very beginning.

Time to stop.

Time to choose life every time the devil provides us with his choice.

His days are numbered.

That’s why he works on us.

He wants to take as many as he can to the pit.

Or, with Christians, he wants us to live in the pit each and every day, decreasing God’s influence on others.

Ouch.

But laugh instead at him, because the jokes on him.

We win.

Let me hear you laugh.

We have already won, we currently win, and we will always win.

Why?

Because God has done it all for us.

Choose life and live as if it matters.

Turn the tables and laugh instead at the devil.

Feels great, doesn’t it?

Photos by Ben WhiteJustin YoungTim MossholderLucas LenziPriscilla Du PreezMarcus Cramer & Scott Webb on Unsplash

 

Be the Light

Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. Matthew 5:16

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Be the Light.

How?

How are we to be the Light of the world?

By reflecting Jesus.

By reflecting His love, His goodness, His mercy, and grace.

By telling people the good news.

When we reflect Jesus, we become lights in our world.

For Him.

When we enter a room filled with His peace,

That room is never the same.

Not because of us,

But because of Him.

Jesus.

When we soak a thirsty soul with truth, His truth,

That soul is never the same.

When we provide a hungry soul, desperate for solid food, absolute truth from God,

The meat from God fills that soul’s deepest aching need.

When we are God’s light to others,

The world is not the same.

Every interaction, becomes Jesus to them.

Every thought becomes a prayer immediately shared before the Lord.

Every time.

Try.

And when you do, you will be a vessel through which God’s light will shine upon every deepest darkest corner of this great big world.

Try to never leave a room as it was when you entered.

With God’s help, leave it even better.

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Unsplash photos by Kari Shea & Matheus Kohler