Desire for God - Ministry Exchange (MX)

(This retreat is to help you examine the status of your desire for God.
Included is a reflection on Psalm 63, a series of questions on the status
of your desire and selected readings for various Christians on the nature
of spiritual desire.)

Examination of Desire

Find the door of your heart, and you will discover that it is the door of
the Kingdom of God.

John Chrysostom Psalm 63 Yearning for God Psalm Of David When he was in the desert of Judah God, you are my God, I pine for you; my heart thirsts for you, my body longs for you, as a land parched, dreary and waterless. Thus I have gazed on you in the sanctuary, seeing your power and your glory. Better your faithful love than life itself; my lips will praise you . Thus I will bless you all my life, in your name lift up my hands. All my longings fulfilled as with fat and rich foods, a song of joy on my lips and praise in my mouth. On my bed when I think of you, I muse on you in the watches of the night, for you have always been my help; in the shadow of your wings I rejoice; My heart clings to you, your right hand supports me.

Notice the images the psalmist uses in expressing his longing for God.

What images does he use?

Does the psalmists desire for God surprise you?

What is the state of your desire for God?

Honestly examine yourself in this regard. Where is your desire for God faint? And where is it strong?

If you were to write a Psalm expressive of your desire what would it
express?

If you are up to it give it a try. Pray your desire-even if it is only a “Widows mite.” Ask for deeper desire-both for God and for the things of God. “You are blessed when you worked up a good appetite for God. He is food and drink the best meal you’ll ever eat.” —From The Message, Eugene Peterson

If you get stuck in exploring the state of your desire here are some
questions that may help as you explore your heart. (You may not have time
to explore them all, but keep them for later examination.)

* What do you find yourself dreaming and day-dreaming of-both pleasant and fearful? Think over the last 2-3 months. BE HONEST NOT PIOUS! What are your longings of you heart? * What do you long for-both good and bad? * Are there desires competing with your desire for God? (relationships, reputation, security, comfort, creativity, anger, image, material things,....other?) * What desires have overwhelmed you of late? Selfish ambitions? Selfish motivations? Sexual desire? Eating? Drinking? Security? Money? Status? Other? * What are you afraid of? Does your fear tell you anything about your love of God? * Do your dreams, fantasies and terrors tell you anything about your hearts desire? Do they tell you of the deeper workings of your life-both positive and negative? * What is your affection for righteousness? The fruits of the Sprit? * What is the state of your desire for God -Do you desire Him? Do you desire to desire Him? —Is your desire waning? —What is the meaning of this? . In what areas do you have a growing desire for more of God? Give Thanks.

Close in prayer asking God to increase your desire for him. (You may use
the prayers that others have prayed to guide you.)

Almighty God, you alone can bring into order the unruly wills and
affections of sinners: Grant your people grace to love what you command
and desire what you promise; that, among the swift and varied changes of
the world, our hearts may surely there be fixed where true joys are to be
found; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the
Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

—FROM THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER

My God,
I pray that I may so know and love you that I may rejoice in you. And if I
may not do so fully in this life let me go steadily on to the day I come to
that fullness. Let your love grow in me here, and there let it be
fulfilled. So that here my joy may be in great hope, and there in full
reality.

St. Anselm (1033-1109)

Lord of all power and might, who art the author and give of all good
things: graft in our hearts the love of thy Name, increase in us true
religion, nourish us with all goodness, and bring forth in us the fruit of
good works: through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with
thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen

—From The Book of Common Prayer

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in
heaven and on earth takes its name. I pray that, according to the riches of
his glory, he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being
with power through his Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts
through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love. I pray that
you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the
breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ
that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness
of God.
Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish
abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to him be glory in the
church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen
(Ephesians 6.14-21; The Message)

a few quotes to consider in relation to desire:

True religion consists largely of the affections of the heart-which are
strong inclinations of the will. The strong inclinations of the love,
desire, hope, joy gratitude motivate the soul positively and hate, fear,
anger and grief turn it away.

—From Religious Affections by Jonathan Edwards

It is men’s ignorance of themselves that makes prayer little in request:
Hunger best teaches men to beg. You would be oftener on your knees, if you
were oftener in your hearts. Prayer would not seem so needless, if you
knew your needs. Know your needs, and be prayerless if you can.

Françios Fénalon I have now reached the proverbial three score years and ten, I can now
look back upon my life and see the tricks we play upon ourselves,
suppressing bad news, repressing pain, and doing everything we can to keep
ourselves form being vulnerable. I have observed the different ways in
which people try to satisfy their deeper desires. When the wrong means are
used, the results can be disastrous, with abuse and excess of every kind
that gradually destroy the inner person. Indeed, it is now my belief that we cannot trust ourselves to infinite desires without that faithful transforming relationship of divine love and friendship with God. The desire that really gives life is to know God. This desire is never satisfied, for it is one that grows with its fulfillment; and our relationship with God changes and leads to a constant deepening of our desires. —From: The Hearts Desire by James Houston The more a sinner’s heart is consumed by the fire of love, the more fully is the rust of sin consumed. . The pleasure of the spirit increases our inner longing even while it satisfies us, since the more we savor it, the more we perceive that there is something more to long for. —From Be Friends of God by Gregory the Great: Desire is not merely a simple wish; it is a deep-seated craving; an
intense longing for attainment. In the realm of spiritual affairs, it is
an important adjunct to prayer. So important is it, that one might say,
almost, that desire is an absolute essential of prayer. Desire precedes
prayer, accompanies it, is followed by it. Desire goes before prayer, and
by it, is created and intensified. Prayer is the oral expression of
desire. If prayer is asking God for something, then prayer must be
expressed. Prayer comes out into the open. Desire is silent. Prayer is
heard; desire, unheard. The deeper the desire, the stronger the prayer.
Without desire, prayer is a meaningless mumble of words. Such perfunctory,
formal praying, with no heart, no feeling, no real desire accompanying it,
is to be shunned like a pestilence. Its exercise is a waste of precious
time, and from it, no real blessing accrues. And yet even if it be discovered that desire is honestly absent, we
should pray, anyway We ought to pray The “ought” comes in, in order that
both desire and expression be cultivated. God’s Word commands it. Our
judgment tells us we ought to pray-to pray whether we feel like it or not-
and not allow our feelings to determine our habits of prayer. In such
circumstance, we ought to pray for desire to pray; for such a desire is God-
given and heaven-born. We should pray for desire; then, when desire has
been given, we should pray according to its dictates. Lack of spiritual
desire should grieve us, and lead us to lament its absence, to seek
earnestly for its bestowal, so that our praying, henceforth, should be an
expression of “the soul’s sincere desire.” —From The Necessity of Prayer by E. M. Bounds

Our hearts are made for Thee and they are restless until they find their
rest in Thee.

St. Augustine O my God, the conversion of my heart, which I ask of you, is a work that exceeds all the powers of nature. So I can only ask of you, Almighty Author and Master of nature. For everything that is not God is unable to fulfill my desires. It is you alone I seek, that I may have you. O Lord, open my heart. Enter into this rebellious place that my sins have possessed. For they hold it in subjection. Do enter in, as into the strong man’s house. But first bind the strong and powerful enemy, who is tyrant over it. Take to yourself the treasures that are there. Lord, take my affections which the world has robbed me of; spoil the world of this treasure. Rather, continue to possess it, for it belongs only to you. It is a tribute I owe you, for all belongs to you, for your own image is stamped upon it. You put it there at the moment of my baptism, which was my second birth. But now it is wholly defaced. The image of the world is so strongly engraved upon it that your own image is no longer discernible. Yet you who alone could create my soul, you alone can create it anew. You alone could create it in your image, so you alone can reproduce it, and re- impress that defaced image. Jesus Christ, my Savior, the express image and character of your essence is that image and likeness I desire. —From Pensées by Blaise Pascal

Love the greatest thing that God can give us-for he himself is love. It is
the greatest thing we can give to God, for it will also be giving
ourselves, carrying with it all that is ours. The Apostle [Paul] calls it
the bond of perfection. It is the old, and it is the new, and it is the
great commandment, and it is all the commandments, for it is the fulfilling
of the law. It does the work of all other graces, without any instrument
but its own immediate virtue.

Just as the love to sin makes a man sin against all his own reason, and the
discourses of wisdom, and the advises of his friends, without temptation
and without opportunity; so does the love of God. It makes a man chaste
without the laborious arts of fasting and exterior disciplines, and
temperate in the midst of feasts. It is active enough to choose itself
without any intermedial appetites, and reaches to glory through the very
heart of grace, without any other arms but those of love.

It is a grace that loves God for himself and our neighbors for God. The
consideration of God’s goodness and bounty, the experience of those
excellent emanations from him, may be and most commonly are the first
motive of our love. But when we are once entered and have tasted the
goodness of God, we love this spring for its own excellency. We pass from
reason to passion, from thanking to adoring, from sense to spirit, from
considering ourselves to union with God. This is the image of heaven. It is
beatitude in picture or rather infancy and beginnings of glory.

We need no incentives to move us to the love of God. We cannot love
anything for any reason, real or imaginary, but the excellence is
infinitely more eminent in God. Two things create
love, perfection and useful. On our part we answer with admiration and
desire; and both these are centered in love.

—From Rules of Holy Living By Jeremy Taylor To have found God and still to pursue Him is the soul’s paradox of love, scorned indeed by the too easily satisfied religionist, but justified in happy experience by the children of the burning heart. St. Bernard stated this holy paradox in a musical quatrain that will be instantly understood by every worshipping soul: We Taste Thee, O Thou Living Bread, And long to feast upon Thee still: We drink of Thee, the Fountainhead And thirst our souls from Thee to fill. Come near to the holy men and women of the past and you will soon feel the heat of their desire after God. They mourned for Him, they prayed and wrestled and sought for Him day and night, in season and out, and when they had found Him the finding was all the sweeter for the long seeking. Moses used the fact that he knew God as an argument for knowing Him better. “Now therefore, I pray thee, if I have found grace in thy sight, show me now thy way, that I may know thee, that I may find grace in thy sight”; and from there he rose to make the daring request, “I beseech thee, show me thy glory” God was frankly pleased by this display of ardor, and the next day called Moses into the mount, and there in solemn procession made all His glory pass before him. -FROM THE PURSUIT OF GOD by A. W Tozer

Many people possess virtues-such as humility, patience, charity towards
neighbors, and so on – but only as a matter of rational choice and directed
will, having no love of spiritual delight in them. Such a person will
perform virtuously, but often with grouchiness, heaviness or even
bitterness in the doing. Never the less, perform he does, prompted out of
fear of god. Such a person has a virtuous reason and a disciplined will,
but no proper love or affection for virtue for its own sake.

—From Toward a Perfect Love by Walter Hilton

In Jonathan Edward’s classic text Religious Affections, he lists twelve
characteristics of holy and true spiritual affections. Examine yourself in
light of this list.(Let me encourage you to read Jonathan Edwards in regard
to this topic-and for all topics, for that matter. He has been described,
by many as the first American born genius.)

Growth in Gracious Religious Affections:

1. A deepening sense of God’s gracious initiative with you

2. A deepening attraction to God and his ways for their own sake

3. A deepening aesthetic appreciation for the beauty of holiness

4. Increasing knowledge and spiritual understanding

5. A deepening conviction of the truth of the Gospel and the reality of
God
6. Growing humility
7. Changes in your nature-both temperament and personality
8. The development of a more gentle Christ-like spirit within you
9. Increasing tenderness of heart and holy fear of the Lord
10. More and more balance and symmetry in your life
11. Deepening hunger for God-hungering and thirsting for righteousness
12. Living a more practical, surrendered and perseverant life