longing, day 4

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: Deuteronomy 33:12

Reading for Reflection:

Deep within each of us is the urge to know and to be known.  It is as central to the core of our being as is the urge to dance in the sunshine or cry at weddings or sing in the shower or laugh at children or fall backward into the snow.  It is buried as deeply within us as is the sense that it takes for us to know not to give children stones and serpents instead of bread and fish.  It is as much a part of us as hugging a child or tending the sick or walking on the beach.

     When we were given the capacity to love, to speak, to decide, to dream, to hope and create and suffer, we were also given the longing to be known by the One who wants to be completely known.  It is a longing woven into the very fabric of the image in which we were made. (Between the Dreaming and the Coming True by Robert Benson)


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