Hungry for more

Photo credit

Some crazy God awesome stuff happens when you pray open ended prayers...fully trusting in God.

God and I have had some interesting and very enlightening conversations.  I wish I could share them all with you.  

But for now...it's encouraging when God sends a symbol consistently to remind you that He is in charge, listening and working on the things between you and Him, and that He cares.

That's the kind of personal God who wants a relationship with you.  God reminds us that He is listening.

He's an attentive God.  And He excels in listening.  That's one of His tender qualities about Him.  He reminds me that I have been heard.

For a woman that's huge, you know, to be heard.  Bigger than you know.  

Sometimes my faith feels a little more than a black hole, empty and draining.   Sometimes I have those sunrise moments that bring an awakening in my soul.

Faith in God is based on a personal relationship built on an endless Love; a journey through time and space and emotions. Like any relationship, it is not static.

There are those highs and lows of a relationship that reveal our areas of growth and trust.  I used to need those conferences or whatever it was that helped us feel so deeply the consuming fire of faith, but in this season I am just seeking God in everything.  And that kind of surrendering lifestyle keeps you submissive to listening to Him.  All the time.

This is my devoted love that is a love response to our Creator.  He has proven Himself worthy of trust.  He is faithful and true.  

Have you grown to a deep faith that is not defined by the emotional or spiritual highs of particular experiences?

And still....

With those...don't we crave it? Once we have tasted and delighted ourselves in God's love, don’t we long for it?  Don't our hearts pine deeply over the comfort feeling that experience again and again?

Perhaps spiritual maturity is demonstrated through our commitment to stay through the mountain-top moments and  journey to the valley-low experiences.  

Is our desire born of a curious nature or one of holy craving?  Of course we, just need or want to know the Lord is near.  Don't we like to feel Love close and nearby?

My heart craving is a sign of my heart’s hunger for my One true Love.  

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

When the ebb and flow of our faith has taken us someplace uncomfortable, our longings shows our love.

I have seen you in the sanctuary
    and beheld your power and your glory.

Because your love is better than life,
    my lips will glorify you.
I will praise you as long as I live,
    and in your name I will lift up my hands.
I will be fully satisfied as with the richest of foods;
    with singing lips my mouth will praise you. – Psalm 63:2-5

Our craving shows our hunger for the Holy.  Oh Lord, draw us near.  Bring us close.  

Who's Hungry?

There are many captions to this picture.  What's yours?

When I first saw this photo, it was one that my friend Patty Gilliland had posted on her Facebook page from her mission trip to Ethiopia.  It spoke so much to me.  Then I heard the background story to the photo and was struck even more.  These four little curious pairs of eyes were peering through the nearest available opening to see...at what was happening on the other side of the fence.

What were they looking for?  

I suppose they were just looking for what they could see.  Given their age I am sure that their curiosity ruled, and watching Americans was quite an opportunity given this was the first time a mission team had been to their Ethiopian community.  But the sticks, posts, and corrugated tin kept them out and away from the action.  It was VBS day for the team so there was a flurry of goodness that was happening on the other side.   

It's curious to me about where they were...well, it's obvious they were on the other side of where they wanted to be.  But when I look between the lines at this photo, I see their hunger.  Not their physical hunger but their spiritual hunger.  Look into their eyes...and see the windows to their souls.

I have seen that in myself many times.  I was so hungry to know what God has for me, for my family.  Finally I stopped wondering and just asked...

"God...what do you have for me today?"  His answer?  "Me"

God wants to be our day.  God wants to be the point of everything, of all our praising, thanking, trusting, asking and pleading.  God wants us close and wants us to come to Him hungry.

"But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." Matthew 6:33

The promise in this verse is that in being hungry for God first, for who He is, and His kingdom then His righteousness, justice, fairness, goodness, honor, respectability, uprightness, virtues will be added.  His kingdom will be yours, God will be the point.  God is the point.  But only to the one who seeks....the one who hungers for God.   

Hunger for God  for who He is..not for just what God can do.  

We wants us to want to spend time with Him, to crave His presence.  

Because He hungers for you....

If you have ever felt far from God..it's your sin that separates.  

"God hates the lonliness we feel by the distance we create."  Sam Roberts