Longing for More

A hallmark of revival seems to be a longing for God.  People stirred by God’s Holy Spirt begin to feel a moving in their heart, a hunger, if you will, for more of God.  “God I MUST have more of You in my life.  I need You.  I want to know You.  I long for You, for Your presence.  I cannot go another day without more of You.”  And this desperate need for more of Him becomes insatiable.  The only thing that can satisfy this need is to actually have more of God…more of His Word, more of His Spirit.  Consider these scriptures on the subject:

“You, God, are my God, earnestly I seek you; I thirst for you, my whole being longs for you…”  Psalm 63:1  “…walking in the way of your laws, we wait for you; your name and renown are the desire of our hearts.  My soul yearns for you in the night; in the morning my spirit longs for you…” Isaiah 26:8,9  “My soul faints with longing for your salvation, but I have put my hope in your word.”  Psalm 119:81  “As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God.  My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.  When can I go and meet with God?”  Psalm 42:1, 2   And more…

Sometimes, we don’t experience this longing and desperation because we are too full—full of other things that distract us and keep us from experiencing God in a more intimate way.  Sometimes we wait until life brings us to a point of desperation, but what if we didn’t wait for that?  What if we were to allow the Holy Spirit to declutter our hearts from distraction and sin now?  What if we responded with true repentance?

Today, if you are missing that longing, hunger, thirst and desperation for the Lord, then ask Him to stir that up in you and let the Holy Spirit do the work that only He can do.

–Katie Botello