longing, day 7

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: Psalm 36:5-10

Reading for Reflection:

Ever since the day I was born I have been trying out loud to get hold of the mystery I find shaping my life.  I have been trying to take the step that will lead me to myself.  We all seem to carry within us a burning desire to be more than we are.  My own explanation of this desire is that it is a call from God to grow.  I take all this longing and look at it.  I promise to give it opportunity to mature.  There is a crisis upon crisis as I stumble toward myself.  It is mystery!  It is wonder!  It is pain!  I am settling for nothing less than heaven these days, but I am discovering that part of heaven is loving getting there. (Seasons of the Heart by Macrina Wiederkehr)

 

 

The books or the music in which we thought the beauty was located will betray us if we trust to them; it was not in them, it only came through them, and what came through them was longing. These things—the beauty, the memory of our own past—are good images of what we really desire; but if they are mistaken for the thing itself they turn into dumb idols, breaking the hearts of their worshippers. For they are not the thing itself; they are only the scent of a flower we have not found, the echo of a tune we have not heard, news from a country we have never yet visited. (Weight of Glory by C. S. Lewis)

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