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.

Appetite

O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. Psalm 63:1

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How is it?

Your appetite for God?

What’s on the menu?

Heart sugary with a side of forgiveness?

Worship and thankfulness?

Gut wrenching prayers?

Pleas for change?

Or have you been skipping meals?

Ignoring your appetite for God?

Maybe you have a snack once in awhile, whispering a prayer here and there.

Sure way to lose the weight of God’s influence.

His blessings.

His peace.

When one’s appetite for God is healthy, the body is strong, resisting easier Satan’s taunts.

However, the opposite is also true.

When we indulge on worldly gain, ignoring the meat of God, our bodies rarely resist the devil’s temptations.

Even worse, when those worldly gains eat up our time, it always becomes more and more and more, never really satisfying.

And God becomes less and less and less.

Where are you?

Where do you fall on the menu of God?

If you have fallen into the circle of poor diet, stop.

Decide today no more.

Open Psalms and begin again.

Grab that pen and begin to journal all God has done for you.

Pray earnestly, seeking the face of God and His will for you and your loved ones.

And do it again the next day.

And the next.

And the next.

Your strength will grow and before you know it, you’ll be craving God more than the world.

Then, my friends, you’ll know you’re appetite has changed.

For the better.

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Photos by Bundo KimErik McleanStella de Smit, & Aaron Burden on Unsplash