Friday, July 1, 2011

Great and Unsearchable Things

Tozer once prayed, “O God, the Triune God, I want to want Thee; I long to be filled with longings; I thirst to be made more thirsty still. Show me thy glory, I pray Thee; so that I may know Thee indeed…”

I want to want you, Lord.

There are many things that I have heard, read and forgotten in my young existence. But this one simple prayer of a humble Chicagoan preacher has stayed with me still. It has become the prayer of my life—the full fledged desire of my spirit. With fists clenched, teeth set and eyes fixed, I resolvedly declare: “God I want you…I want you more than anything. Even when I don’t feel like I want you, in those moments of fleshy weakness, when my will grows faint, I still want you.”

I long to be filled with longings…

My heart has so many longings: creative longing, maternal longings, adventure longings, mission longings, heavenly longings, joy longings, beauty longings, the list goes on and on. But above all else, I want to be filled—completely captivated and satisfied—with Jesus longings. It is not a bad thing to long for something. If we didn’t have longings we wouldn’t be human. God has given us the ability to long for things so that we will turn to Him to be filled. Even after, He doesn’t take the longings away because we have never arrived; He wants us to continue searching. “Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know” Jeremiah 33:3.

I wonder if the word ‘longing’ is synonymous to ‘hunger’. Hunger is a craving that can only be satisfied by one thing: food. You can’t satisfy you hunger with a tennis ball or a book or a person. Our stomachs were made for food. In the same way our souls long for the one thing that will satisfy. We try and fill it with other things but deep down we long, we all long.

Even when I don’t feel like I have a particular hunger or longing for God—I pray to receive the longing because that day will be a waste if not lived out for Him. Jesus reassures us with this promise: “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they will be filled.”

I thirst to be made more thirsty still. Show me thy glory, I pray Thee; so that I may know Thee indeed…

Isn’t our God great?!

In Our Father of Heavenly Lights,

Bethany Adele

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