The Right Hunger

Psalms 63:1 GNB

O God, you are my God, and I long for you. My whole being desires you; like a dry, worn-out, and waterless land, my soul is thirsty for you.

There's a God-shaped vacuum in every life that nothing else can occupy or satisfactorily fill. There's a bit of God breathed into man at creation that nothing else can fill except He who created man. Unfortunately, man has devised various things as alternatives to God: there's now power, position, possessions, privilege and so on. We think that the more we have or become, the happier we will be. But as evidence around us points out, more money has never led to a happier life. More possessions do not guarantee joy. The fact that things look good for you on the outside does not necessarily mean that all is well on the inside.

Today's extract is a timely reminder of our need to depend absolutely and totally on God and God alone. The Psalmist here had a thirst that nothing else could satisfy. He had a deep longing that no activity, acquisition or achievement could fully quench. Nothing Worked for him except if God was in it with him. That should be our greatest desire and pursuit. God is the ultimate and He should be our ultimate. The world has its dazzling lights and distracting objects: they make you think that life will be more colourful If you got these things, but we know that It is only that man that has God that truly has everything. It is the man who has given God first place and the only available space in his heart that can truly enjoy the benefits and blessings of his presence.

Is your land like a dry, weary land in need of the refeshing presence of God himself or are you trying to find other things to use to satisfy that thirst? Is your whole being longing for God or longing for the physical, temporary thrill that doesn't truly satisfy? Get your priorities right: nothing and nobody except God that fill the place of his Spirit in our hearts. You need him and him alone, nothing else matters. His time of favour is here.