Day 05 - Cultivate a Spiritual Appetite
As the deer pants for streams of water,
so my soul pants for you, my God.
My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
When can I go and meet with God?
I remember the days of long ago;
I meditate on all your works
and consider what your hands have done.
I spread out my hands to you;
I thirst for you like a parched land
The writers of Psalms capture so well the hunger for the presence of God. There is an evident desperation in these words for a touch from heaven.
I am sure you can remember what it was like when you first gave your life to Jesus. You knew that the old had gone and the new had come. Everything was new, every revelation from God so sweet. As time goes on and our faith in Jesus and understanding of the word develops, it is all too easy to fall into a rhythmic routine of religious habits. But over time this, just like a piece of chewing gum, begins to lose its sweetness and become tougher and less flexible.
John writes down his well-known warning in Revelation 2:4-5, “Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first. Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.”
The church in Ephesus were doing so much, had grown so strong, yet had fallen so far. We need to stoke the fires of our first love. We need to hunger and thirst for more of God!
There is always more in God.
Consider the strange picture we read in Revelations 4:6-8. This passage describes creatures with six wings covered in eyes, inside and out. Surrounding the throne of God, day in and day out they sing, ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, the Almighty - the one who always was, who is and who is to come’. As strange as this may be, it is a picture of the infinite nature of God. With so many viewpoints, if they can sit around God for eternity and see something of wonder again and again than we can be sure that there is always more to see and wonder in and marvel about God.
God is infinite; there is always more in God. How hungry are you for more of Him today? Be encouraged to reflect again on your first love. Stoke the fire of your faith again to see more of God.
Challenge: Reflect
Quote: “To have found God and still to pursue Him is the soul’s paradox of love.” - A.W. Tozer