…I rejoice to acknowledge, who will not be content with shallow logic. They will admit the force of the argument, and then turn away with tears to hunt some lonely place and pray, “O God, show me thy glory.” They want to taste, to touch with their hearts, to see with their inner eyes the wonder that is God.
I want deliberately to encourage this mighty longing after God. The lack of it has brought us to our present low estate. The stiff and wooden quality about our religious lives is a result of our lack of holy desire. Complacency is a deadly foe of all spiritual growth. Acute desire must be present or there will be no manifestation of Christ to his people. He waits to be wanted.
The Pursuit of God, A.W. Tozer
Wow, this dude is deep. I love it! Frankly, some (ok most) of this seems over my head. It’s taken me a week or more to begin to grasp what Tozer was talking about. I had to read and re-read to try to get a little bit of understanding. As glimpses of understanding came, I wondered to myself “Do I want God?” Do I want to taste, to touch, to see with the eyes of my soul, to experience God? Some may say, we already do that, it comes with being a Christian. But I say that if we do not continually examine and question ourselves about God, about who He is, about how He works, about what He expects, and just assume that because we are Christians, that that is enough, we miss out on the relationship and the experience of God, and then we fail to see the wonder of God.
As David said during his time in the wilderness:
O God, you are my God; I earnestly search for you.
My soul thirsts for you; my whole body longs for you in this
parched and weary land where there is no water.
Psalm 63:1
Do we “earnestly” search for God? Do we “thirst” for his living water? Do we “long” for Him? What does it mean to “thirst,” to “long?” Are “earnestly,” “thirst,” “long,” parts of your relationship with God?
Do we long for God with our whole body? Mind, body and spirit? Everything that we are? Does our mind know God but our heart not experience God? Do our bodies, by our actions reflect that we know God? Do our hands, our feet, our hearts physically reach out to him? Do we long for the Spirit of God to bubble up from within?
Further in Psalm 63, at verse 6, David says: “I lie awake thinking of you, meditating on you through the night.”
Do we “meditate” on God other than when we have a request? Other than when we need Him?
Fulfill your longing and your thirst by meditating on God. Chase after him and you will see the wonder that He is.
How about chasing after God by searching through the scriptures for verses that encourage us to thirst, long and meditate on God? Make a note of scriptures that will encourage and remind you “to see with your inner eye the wonder that is God.”
Lord in Heaven, we run to you. We want to know you. We want to experience you. Show us your wonder today. Amen.