Since receiving Jesus into their lives, many Christians face a season where they feel that they should do more. In your walk with God, you may face a season where you feel that you are not as close to God as you should be. You see other Christians who seem to have it so good in their relationship with God. You are seeing spiritual breakthroughs in their lives and long for the same. But somehow, you feel stuck in your spiritual life wondering how do I desire God more? The good news is that when you are in this season, God wants the same thing for you too.
Why Do We Desire God
Most of us will know at least some parts of the story of King David. Some of the most poetic calls to God were written by him in the Psalms. One that sticks out to me was in Psalms 143.
I lift my hands to you in prayer. I thirst for you as parched land thirsts for rain - Psalm 143:6 (NLT)
I read of David’s life as he was on the run for his life from Saul. And then from his son Absolom later on in life. Somehow, during his most uncertain times, King David always desired God. There are many more verses where David wrote about thirsting for the Lord.
As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God? - Psalms 42:1-2 (ESV)
This led me to ask why is it that we even desire God? During what times and what circumstances? Or is it that we will always feel incomplete in this world. It was King David’s son King Solomon that answered for me.
He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. - Ecclesiastes 3:11 (NIV)
In this transient world where we are here for a short moment before we are reunited with God, we will be incomplete. There will always be a longing for something that God can only fulfill. God has put eternity in our hearts as a glimpse of what is to come. And what is to come is not something we will be able to find here.
How Do I Desire God More
While God has put eternity in our hearts, this brings us to the season that you currently may be at. You want to desire God more, you know what you should do as a Christian. But somehow, your heart is having a hard time. The enemy then takes the opportunity to make you feel guilty. So you just want to solve this problem: “how do I desire God more like I’m supposed to be doing”.
Spend Un-interrupted Time With The Lord
If you are like me, I always want to do more. I want to be productive and useful. I’m always thinking of ways to be ahead and optimize my time. It gets to a point where I often struggle with the feeling of not doing enough. But in my pursuit of wanting to accomplish tasks after tasks, I can get all over the place with what I’m doing. I will often multi-task and get distracted with what I need to do next before I finish what I’m currently doing. Unfortunately, this can spill into my spiritual life.
Like you, I want to be a “good” Christian. I want to be able to read my Bible, spend time in prayers, and do all the things I’m supposed to do as a follower of Christ. However, just like how I allow interruptions during my work for the sake of optimization, my time with the Lord gets often interrupted. It could be hearing a text message coming through or suddenly remembering something I should do after. Overall, it can be just an overwhelming sense of feeling rushed so that I can get to check off my list.
When we fill ourselves with so much of the world, how can we have any room for God? How can we desire God more when our desires to run our lives are more important to us than spending time with our Lord. We can spend hours watching a show or movie we love. Yet, we can feel so rushed when we spend a few minutes with the One who gave His all for us. This is not meant to make you feel guilty. This is the reality. The truth is, we need to re-prioritize. We cannot desire God when we have filled our buckets with things of the world than with Living water.
Write Down All Your Breakthroughs
In the verse that we looked at earlier where King David says he thirst for the Lord as parched land thirst for rain, the verse before tells us how King David arrived there.
I remember the days of long ago; I meditate on all your works and consider what your hands have done. - Psalm 143:5 (NIV)
Sometimes, we get in a rut in our spiritual life. We may be praying for a breakthrough, pleading with God to answer our prayers. For whatever reason that God has delayed, it can make our hearts complacent. We can get “numb” to what God is able to do in our lives. It can be to a point where we don’t really feel close to God because our sinful nature wonders if He is even listening.
But like David, we need to remember days of long ago. We need to remember each and every time that God has answered our prayers. We need to be grateful for the closed doors, for the hard lessons and for the better doors that came out because of them. The truth is, God is always working. Even when it doesn’t feel like it. God is with you even when you don’t feel close to Him.
So to desire Him more, let us account for each and every situation where God has blessed us with more than we deserve. It can be as simple as writing in a journal.
Pray For The Needs Of Others
Read: Matthew 20:25-28
Jesus’s heart is about serving. If we are to desire God, we need to have His heart. Jesus’s heart longs to heal the broken, to bring justice to those that are wronged, and to live a life of service. Even though He is God, he took on the form of a servant.
Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. - Philippians 2: 5-8 (ESV)
We need to shift the needs off of ourselves and carry Jesus’s heart for others. God knows our needs and deepest desires. But there are billions of people in the world out there that do not know Him and are desperate in need of Him. We need to serve those around us by praying for their needs. This brings our attention off of the “me, me, me” mindset to those that God loves. When we have God’s heart, you will be able to see that God is a promise keeper.
You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. - Jeremiah 29:3 (NIV)
Let Us Pray
Heavenly Father, you know that my heart longs to desire you. I admit my mind can be flooded with everything else. I tend to allow the things of this world to fill my cup, instead of with you. Lord, give me your heart so that I can learn to seek your face. Teach me each day to prioritize my relationship with you above the things of this world. And remind me of your goodness when I lose focus. Thank you for your grace, even when I don’t have it figured out. In Jesus’s name I pray. Amen.