A Tale of Longing
What are you longing for today?
Verse of the Day
‘For he satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things.’
Today’s Devotional
Setting aside the thoughts of physical hunger and thirst, this verse makes me ask myself, “What are you longing for?”
Let’s say that I am at a carnival. And I’m hungry. I’m not exactly sure what I’m hungry for, but I know that I need something. So I go to the first food vendor I see and buy a hamburger. I take a couple of bites, but it doesn’t really hit the spot. So I go to another food vendor and buy an ice cream sundae. It looks fantastic. But a couple of bites in, I push it aside. It just isn’t satisfying me. So I look around at the other people. One guy has a giant tray of homemade french fries. I stop him and ask him where he got them. He points out the vendor, which is halfway across the carnival, but I walk over and get the french fries. After my fourth fry, I put them in the trash. I see a little girl with her parents and she has some kind of fried concoction. I ask the mother what it is and where to get it. The mother tells me it is a fancy funnel cake type thing, and points me to the vendor who gladly takes my money. Once I have my food, I sit down to enjoy it. It tastes really good. But sadly, it still doesn’t do the trick. At this point I get frustrated. I’ve tried many different things and yet I’m not satisfied. I look around again and at the table next to me, there is a man who looks perfectly content. We make eye contact and He asks me how I’m doing. I tell him, “I’ve tried a lot of the food options here, and yet nothing is satisfying. You look so content. What did you eat?”
He points to a run down shack over at the edge of the property. “I always get my refreshments at that place,” he says. I look to the shack and my first thought is that this guy is crazy. That little shack looks sketchy at best. “Trust me,” he says. “You won’t regret it.”
Instead I look around some more and see what else other people are enjoying. Many of the people are eating the same things I have already tried. They look happy enough. I walk around some more and finally end up pretty close to the run down shack. At this point, what could it hurt? As I get closer, I see a very nice man with a very welcoming smile. He looks at me knowingly and hands me a big cup of really cold, clean water. “How much?” I ask. “It’s free. Come back anytime you need more.” As soon as I take a drink, my first thought is that while this is nice and refreshing, there’s no way this will actually satisfy me. I find a place to sit and drink my water and look around. Before I know it, the water is gone and so is my longing.
So what is the point of my little tale? For me, I usually never know what I’m actually needing. And I look in all the wrong places, spend too much time and money, and try anything to make me feel satisfied. I look to others and I ask around. But usually the simplest answer, which is spending time with God, is all I really need. Pouring my heart out to Him, telling Him how I feel, and drinking in His presence. It is so simple that I never think it will really work. But it does.
The key to this verse for me is that “He satisfies”. Everything that is refreshing and good in my life comes from Him. I just need to remember that and go to Him first.
Journal Prompts
Answer only the questions that seem relevant to you today.
How can you seek God with and for anything you are lacking today?
What good and satisfying things do you have that are from God?
How can you remember to go to God first for any need?