longing, day 6

Come to Stillness: Take a few minutes to allow your mind and heart to be still before God.

Opening Prayer:
O God, I have tasted Thy goodness, and it has both satisfied me and made me thirsty for more.  I am painfully conscious of my need for further grace.  I am ashamed of my lack of desire.  O God, the Triune God, I want to want Thee;  I long to be filled with longing; I thirst to be made more thirsty still. (The Pursuit of God by A. W. Tozer)

Psalm for the Week: Psalm 63

Scripture for the Day: Hebrews 11:1-16

Reading for Reflection:

The whole of the good Christian life is a holy longing.  What you desire ardently, as yet you do not see…By withholding of the vision, God extends longing; through longing he extends the soul, by extending he makes room in it.  Let us long because we are to be filled…that is our life, to be exercised by longing.

                                                            ~St. Augustine

The secret of being in love, of falling in love with life as it was meant to be, is to befriend our yearning instead of avoiding it, to live into our longing rather than trying to resolve it, to enter the spaciousness of our emptiness rather than trying to fill it up. (The Awakened Heart by Gerald May)


Reflection and Listening: silent and written

Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself

Song for the Week: Satisfied

All my life long I had panted
For a drink from some cool spring
That I hoped would quench the burning
Of the thirst I felt within.

Hallelujah!  He has found me
The One my soul so long has craved! 
Jesus satisfies all my longings
Through his blood I now am saved.
 
Feeding on the filth around me
‘Till my strength was almost gone. 
Longed my soul for something better
Only still to hunger on.
 
Poor I was and sought for riches
Something that would satisfy. 
But the dust I gathered ‘round me
Only mocked my soul’s sad cry.
 
Well of water ever springing
Bread of life so rich and free. 
Untold wealth that never faileth
My Redeemer is to me.
 

 

Closing Prayer:

Teach me to seek you, for I cannot seek you unless you teach me, or find you unless you show yourself to me.  Let me seek you in my desire, and desire you in my seeking.  Let me find you by loving you, let me love you when I find you.
                                                                         ~St. Anselm