August 2021

“My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.” (John 4:34)

Jesus’ meat, His burning desire, His hunger and thirst, the thought at the front and back of His mind was to submit to the will of God and accomplish His work. When He sat down or stood up, while traveling or resting, when He was discoursing with His disciples or teaching in the synagogue, whether He was blasphemed or honored, while He was in public or seclusion, Jesus was engrossed in the glory and kingdom of God. Despised by the Pharisees who accused Him of being born of adultery, acclaimed by others to be the Son of God, tempted by the devil, persecuted and falsely accused, Jesus had fixed his mind on one and only one thing: the glory of His Father and the Kingdom of God.

Likewise, Paul’s life was centered around Christ. He was all about Jesus. Whatever he did, in actions and words, was for the glory of God. Paul was zealous, his burning desire was to honor the Lord in life or death. His demeanor and faith did not change when he faced hardships. Whether living in plenty or in want, whether he was abased or abounded, Jesus was his singular focus. The love of God constrained all his actions, Christ’s love had compelled him to live for Jesus only. For him, to live was Christ. Paul had understood if he had wanted to live for Christ, he would have to completely surrender his life and allow Jesus Himself to live through him.

Another person who had made God the center of his life was King David. His burning desire, his overarching thirst was God. He inhaled and exhaled God. The Psalms are replete with his cravings for God. David’s desires and aspirations could easily be picked up by any reader. His soul thirsted after God as a deer would thirst for water. At dawn, God was in his heart, at dusk his cravings are whetted for God. At night on his bed, he would meditate on the beauty and splendor of the Messiah. He had a strong desire and was dauntless going after God. His overarching desire, his life’s purpose, his whole dream was to live near to God, to praise and worship Him. His magnificent obsession was seeking the face of God, standing in awe of Him, and exalting and glorifying in Him.

The pursuits that I am preoccupied with, the things that I obsess about, the thoughts that revolve in my mind when I wake up in the morning or retire for the night, the entries in my checkbook and the events on my calendar are mirrors of what is inside of me. They reflect my true nature. My to-read lists, the websites I frequently visit, the friends I hang out with, the words that proceed out of my mouth, the songs that I listen to, and lyrics that my ears gravitate toward, etc. easily show the state of my heart and the objects of my life. The habits that I regularly practice are indicators of what I am really made of.

By nature, we are chasers and pursuers of material or spiritual/psychological things. We have gods we bow down to, whether we are cognizant of them or not. We are prey to things we are disposed to, our proclivity for whatever we are desiring and/or doing are symptoms of what is brewing inside our hearts. We have longings in our hearts, a yearning for something or someone. We are seekers. Our eyes are not tired from looking. Our ears are not weary of hearing and our minds are in a continual search for a resting place. We are zealous about one, or many things. We are either on a constant quest or on a re-fill. We have gaping holes in our hearts that need to be filled. There is a void that is screaming out for our attention; there is a dark valley that we are going through so we are in a desperate search for a company to fend off our loneliness. We are religious, we always have something to chase to satiate our hunger, someone to go after to fill our emptiness.

Today, if you were stopped in your tracks and asked to give an honest account of your reason for living, your greatest passion, what would that be? If you were asked to produce a document that shows your strong, earnest and lifetime desire, a yearning hope that your life is anchored to, what would it display? What would be the thing you would die for? What is the thing you are most zealous about and the burning desire that “keeps you up at night”? What is your soul craving and yearning for?

If we are chasing things, we will surely be disappointed because the world and its’ desires will fade away. If we sweat over the temporal and brush aside the eternal, we will reap spiritual anguish. Our soul is eternal and what we do with it will remain eternally with God or in separation from God; we will either reap eternal punishment or eternal blessings. If we seek God in our lives, are true to Him, and obey and worship Him, we will be satisfied, we shall not want.

To live is Christ, to die is gain

In dry times and in times of rain.

Abe Woldesemayat Hosea 6:3

“So let us know, let us press on to know the LORD. His going forth is as certain as the dawn; And He will come to us like the rain, Like the spring rain watering the earth.”