“And the hunger for God is lost. The
desire to see people who don’t know the Lord is left in melancholy and
sleeping! There’s no desire to even share what the Lord has done in your own
personal life! Maybe because we stopped
looking and acknowledging His divine presence in our lives?” –Leslie Theresa
Wendy Norris
Can you say that you
know God? Are you so familiar with Him
that you know what He thinks about the issues in your life? If we are honest with ourselves we have to
admit that we do not know Him that well.
As an example: I and one of my
mission team partners, Bill, came across two men standing on the sidewalk in
St. Ann’s Bay, Jamaica. Right away Bill
asked the two, “Do you know Jesus?”
Their response, “Ya Mon, we know Jesus.”
Yet their knowledge of Jesus was limited to what they were taught as
children; since becoming adults they had both become Rastas (Rastafarians). They had not grown in faith beyond their
early Sunday School lessons and when they became men there was nothing to help
guide their lives beyond their own selfish desires of smoking ganja and
frequenting rum bars. “Oh, but Linda I
am not that bad,” you say, “I go to church, sing in the choir, pay my tithes,
and help the poor.” Excellent my
friend! These are outward signs of the
Christian life, but what are the inward signs?
“I know all that you’ve
done for me—you have worked hard and persevered. I know that you don’t tolerate
evil. You have tested those who claimed to be apostles and proved they are not,
for they were imposters. I also know how
you have bravely endured trials and persecutions because of my name, yet you
have not become discouraged. But I have
this against you: you have abandoned the passionate love you had for me at the beginning.” – Revelation 2:2-4 (TPT)
Have you “…abandoned the passionate love you had…”
for the Lord? When I first became a
Christian Jesus was my priority. I read
my Bible with zeal to know Him and more about Him. I prayed often, not in big or flowery words
but in simple short conversations. For
the first four years of my Christian walk it was like this, but then I moved to
another state and let busyness put priorities in my life other than Jesus. Although I did not go as far as smoking ganja
or drinking, I did quit seeking out more and more of the Lord. I still attended church, sang worship songs,
gave money when the offerings were taken and such. I was a woman who was looked at by others as
“good” but inside my soul was slowly drying up.
“Has going hard
after God become as important to us as water is to someone dying of
thirst? Maybe we’re not thirsty enough
yet.” –Larry Elder
“God—you’re my God! I can’t get enough of you! I’ve worked up such hunger and thirst for
God, traveling across dry and weary deserts.
So here I am in the place of worship, eyes open, drinking in your
strength and glory. In your generous
love I am really living at last! My lips
brim praises like fountains. I bless you
every time I take a breath; My arms wave like banners of praise to you.” – Psalm 63:1-3 (MSG)
Psalm 42:1 shows as
well what our desire should be in knowing God:
“I long to drink of you, O
God, drinking deeply from the streams of pleasure flowing from your
presence. My longings overwhelm me for
more of you!” –(TPT)
“A white-tailed deer drinks
from the creek; I want to drink God, deep draughts of God. I’m thirsty for
God-alive. I wonder, “Will I ever make it— arrive and drink in God’s presence?”
I’m on a diet of tears— tears for breakfast, tears for supper. All day long
people knock at my door, Pestering, “Where is this God of yours?” – (MSG)
My zeal returned
when I attended mission school ten years later, and it has continued to grow
stronger over the years since. I learned
that it is so easy in this day and age to let the busyness of life distract me
away from pursuing a relationship with Jesus.
Other things that I have found prevent pursuit of God are: fear of rejection, bitterness, anger and even
being religious.
To have found God
and still to pursue Him is the soul’s paradox of love, scorned indeed by the
too easily satisfied religionist, but justified in happy experience by the
children of the burning heart.” –A. W. Tozer
“Amazing! Weren’t our
hearts on fire within us while He was talking to us on the road? Didn’t you
feel it all coming clear as He explained the meaning of the Hebrew Scriptures?” – Luke 24:32 (VOICE)
Another thing that
robs us of that zeal for God is being satisfied with where we are at: complacency.
“I know what you do. You
are not hot or cold. I wish that you were hot or cold! But you are only warm—not hot, not cold. So I
am ready to spit you out of my mouth.” – Revelation 3:15-16 (ERV)
With all this in
mind, are you satisfied with where you are at or do you want to grow closer to
Jesus? The Rev. David Wilkerson once
said, “You cannot grow until you hate your present immaturity. I encourage you
to cry out to God, Lord, translate me into your glorious kingdom of power and
victory. Give me the life of usefulness and joy that so many others are
enjoying!”
“I was baptized
alongside my mother when I was 8 years old. Since then, I have tried to walk a
Christian life. And now that I'm getting older, I realized that I'm walking
even closer with my God.” — Andy Griffith
A few more quotes to
stir your heart with hunger for God are:
“Real joy comes when
we get the right desire met - the desire for God himself, for a life led by the
Spirit, fulfilling not our material desires but our deepest need, which is to
be in a close relationship with our Creator. That is the source of true
blessing. The only source.” ― Michael W. Smith
“Your Christian life
is supposed to be about your personal relationship with God. It is supposed to
be about you and God alone.” ― Sunday Adelaja
“God trusts most
those who know Him best, and those who know Him best are those who have spent
the most time with Him.” ― Mark Batterson
“Too often we want
clarity and God wants us to come closer.” ― Ann Voskamp
“Our hearts are
restless until they find their rest in Thee.” –St. Augustine
In these end-times I
believe God is fanning the embers of love for him in our hearts. I pray that He has used me in this article to
cause your heart to yearn for Him in deeper and deeper ways. I pray that you have again found your hunger
for God. Here is one more encouragement:
Phil Wickham, “Your
Love Awakens Me”