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Sep 19, 2019 08:00am

Want to Feel Full? Pray This Prayer.

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Around 9:00 every night, my dog Duke stares longingly up at the cabinet above my husband’s recliner. He knows exactly what’s in there and what time he usually gets it.

Shaun reaches up, and Duke’s eyes seem to grow five sizes! Those pupils are so big and round that they seem to take up his entire eye. It’s the best part of his day. He longs for it. And then the moment comes, and he gets his bone. He’s the happiest dog you’ve ever seen. That big, otter tail of his starts swooping around, knocking over everything including Sassy, our Jack Russell. He loves that bone.

I’ve seen that same look in a young man’s eyes when he gets that first big paycheck, a little girl’s eyes when she hears the ice cream truck coming through the neighborhood, my friend’s eyes when we talk about tacos and cheese dip, or in the eyes of children and teens as they receive an autograph from their favorite player at the big game.

I’ve even seen that look in the eyes in of those same kids as they play their own sports. Months of long practices, weeks during the summer at camps, hours upon hours of traveling and getting that ring or a trophy at the end. They work hard and their parents work just as much, and I know they’re beaming with pride as they see their child accomplishing big things!

But yesterday I realized that, maybe, just maybe, God wants us to look at him with those big, longing eyes filled with the desire to know Him more.

Him.

My heart is overwhelmed when my husband looks at me that way. His excitement to see me at the end of the day, the way he can’t wait to tell me a story about something that happened. Even when I’m covered in sweat, dirt and dog poo from working in the kenne, he still thinks I’m beautiful.

What if we felt that same desire for our God?

Isn’t He our first love?

“Seek ye first the kingdom of God . . . ” the scripture reads.

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind . . . ”

Words of Scripture echo in my mind as I see so many of us run with excitement to the things of this world.

But not to Jesus.

Ice cream, paychecks, and sports are not bad things, but are we putting them before our Lord? Are we putting them before our God who loved us so much that He came to die for us?

In Philippians 2:6-8 Paul says this is what Jesus did: “Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.”

While I’ve been teaching the youth in our church for nearly ten years now, I’m sure there are plenty of you with far more experience. My heart yearns for these kids. I want them to want Jesus – more than the way they want the stuff of this world.

And as parents, we’ve got to step up our game!

They look to us as examples. What do they see us doing? What do we encourage them in?

If we don’t commit to seeking and serving Christ, will they?

Today, what if we truly sought God?

What if we longed for his Word and filled ourselves with it?

Psalm 73:25-26 says, “Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee. My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion forever.”

Let our prayer today and every day be this:

“Lord, fill me today! Let my hunger and thirst be for your righteousness and your love!

May I come to you, the Living Water, and drink!

And to you, the Bread of Life, and be filled!

Help me to say with David in Psalm 63:1: ‘O God, You are my God; I shall seek you earnestly; My soul thirsts for you, my flesh yearns for you, In a dry and weary land where there is no water.’

And may I remember the words of Jesus in John 6:35: ‘I am the bread of life; he who comes to me will not hunger, and he who believes in me will never thirst.’”