Desiring God

When we deal with the word “desire” in Christianity, we are dealing with a very complicated term. There are two schools of thought when we come to this word.

We have those who declare Jeremiah 17:9, "The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” So they ban themselves from having any desires. They retreat to their cloisters, and try as much as possible to purge any forms of desire from their hearts.

We also have those who readily proclaim Psalm 27:4, “Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart" Therefore, God becomes a genie in a bottle. They rub the bottle, and hope that God will grant their wishes.

However, is the word “desire” good or bad? In Christianity, "desire” is not a bad word. It is only natural for the heart to desire.

Sinclair "Sy" Rogers expresses three forms of hunger (desire):
1) The mind hungers for knowledge/truth
2) The stomach hungers for food
3) The soul/heart hungers for love

It is not the act of desiring that is wrong, but WHAT WE DESIRE that has the potential to be wrong.

But how how do we practice desiring God in the Christian context? Let us then refer to Psalm 42.
1. We need to remember our need for God.

Some key phrases to take note. "Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me?" (42:5), "Deep calls to deep ..." (42:7). These two verses remind us that each and every single human being have a need for God.

We are all busy people. We live in a society that tells us things like, "We are our own man. We form our our destiny." or "I have no time to feed this so-called need for God." Sadly, if we live our lives according to what the world says, very soon, like a plant without water, we will wither and die. Ecclesiastes 3:11 tell us, "[God] has also set eternity in the hearts of men ..." We need to recognize that there is a God-shaped void within all man. If we do not seek to feed it, very soon, we will really wither and die.

2. Seek to know God, not know about God.

"1 As the deer pants for streams of water,

so my soul pants for you, O God.
2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God" - 42:1-2

The psalmist reminds us that God is our goal, our destiniation, that we must seek to "know" all about him.
Ask yourself this questions: What do you KNOW ABOUT God? Then on a scale from 1 to 10, how much do you KNOW God? What changes has knowing God brought into your life?
To "know about" indicates a distance between us and the knowledge. Like when my mom told me to wash the dishes after dinner, I "know about" her instructions, but because I do not act it out, I only dwell in the "know about" region. In the end, I did not wash the dishes at all (at the cost of my mom yelling, and me nearly becoming deaf).

To “know” in the Bible is a very significant word. When Adam knew Eve, they had a baby (guess what know in this context means). To know God, transformation occurs, so radical that it fulfils your spiritual hunger.

Read Matthew 25, consider Luke 6:46-27, ""Why do you call me, 'Lord, Lord,' and do not do what I say? I will show you what he is like who comes to me and hears my words and puts them into practice." Those who "know" God, they will obey God's commandments and practice it. Do you "know" God? Do you seek to "know" God?

3. Give thanks to God for ALL things, good or bad.

"4 These things I remember as I pour out my soul: how I used to go with the multitude, leading the procession to the house of God, with shouts of joy and thanksgiving among the festive throng." - 42:7

The psalmist emphasizes on the importance of thanking God.

Give thanks for the good things in life: As Christians, we spend more time at the end of the day telling God to give us the thing we want, than thanking Him for the good that he has done. Thankfulness creates gratitude, and gratitude reminds us that we simply just owe God too much, that we cannot repay Him. Before the crucifixion, we owe God our lives, as payment for the sins we have accumulated. After the crucifixion, we owe God our lives to serve Him, as He gave up His life for our sins. He owe us nothing, and He need not have done it, but he did it anyway. Yet, He does not remind us of what we owe. He just loves us. This should increase your love for Him.

Give thanks for the bad things in life: Job told his wife off, in Job 2:10b, "Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?" God is not calling for us to be deny our feelings when we meet trouble. The psalmist were outright about expressing their complaint to God. Read Psalm 109. The psalmist curses his enemies, asking God to plague him, ensuring that he will be childless and wifeless. However, in the end, the psalmist expresses, "With my mouth I will greatly extol the LORD; in the great throng I will praise him" (Psalm 109:30). The psalmist complained in God, and trust that God will bring about the best resolution, which He will!

Consider also Romans 5:3-5, "3Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us." Which are the moments that truly shape your character? Is it not failures, criticisms and sufferings of sorts? It is your decision, to allow it to break you, or build you.

The more you thank God for the things He has done in your life, slowly you will find that it is no longer the things that He blesses you that you are seeking for, rather, you begin to desire more for His presence.

Let us not be Christians who treat Christianity as something we put around our neck, or something that only happens on Good Friday, Easter and Christmas. He is to be desired. Let us seek to realize that we need Him, seek to know Him, and always thank Him for every single thing that He has done in our lives.

Amen.