How to Want God
Psalm 63
You, God, are my God,
earnestly I seek you;
I thirst for you,
my whole being longs for you,
in a dry and parched land
where there is no water.
I have seen you in the sanctuary
and beheld your power and your glory.
Because your love is better than life,
my lips will glorify you.
I will praise you as long as I live,
and in your name I will lift up my hands.
I will be fully satisfied as with the richest of foods;
with singing lips my mouth will praise you.
Here’s a silly question: Do you have to use willpower in order to make yourself thirsty?
If you're like me, you don’t just summon up desires out of thin air. They happen in a way that you can’t directly control. So what do we do if we want to want God, like in this psalm? Just like we can’t will ourselves to be thirsty, we also can’t will ourselves to want God more.
Instead, I’m willing to bet that you already crave God. Do you long for love with your whole being? What about security? Do you thirst for purpose and peace and pleasure? Those things have their source in God, so instead of trying to conjure up desires out of thin air, we need to simply redirect the longings we already have to the right place.
And, as this poet says, we will be satisfied as with the richest of foods.
Prayer for Today
“God, everything around me is dry and parched, and I want you to quench my thirst. Satisfy these deep longings of mine with you, because your love is better than life!”