Stretch Our Appetite
Spiritual hunger is one of the Holy Spirit’s shaping tools for changing us. Desire for the Lord shows we believe what he says about himself. Healthy faith thirsts for God.1 It urges us to know him more and become more like him. Hunger for God is strong and will keep growing. But only if we feed it. There are certain types of prayer that are guaranteed to stretch our appetite for him.
When David sang Psalm 63, he was in trouble; his life was in danger. Yet, he started his song by declaring a longing for God.
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 (Ps 63:1).
That prayer of hunger for the Lord wasn’t a spontaneous idea. It was an appetite he had nurtured in prayer. His song shows or hints at three specific types of prayer. The same prayer types can help stretch our appetite as well.
I’ll touch on the first two and cover the third in next month’s post.
MEDITATION
I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory (Ps. 63:2).
What is a prayer of meditation? There are different thoughts on it, but this is the approach that I find most helpful. We recall a truth that the Lord has drawn our attention to – usually a truth about himself – and unhurriedly rehearse it to him.
We don’t simply turn it over in our minds, but voice it as a soft mutter or mumble. Doing that helps to overcome distractions, keeps our mind focused and nurtures the heart-tongue connection (viz., shaping what we say from what we believe, Rom 10:8-10).
The psalmist recalls two truths that the Lord had drawn his attention to while he worshipped in the sanctuary, viz., the power and glory of God.
The Lord might alert us to a particular truth through a scripture, picture, impression, dream, song, or a spiritual parallel in nature. Meditating on the truth will deepen our awareness of it, help us understand how to apply it to life and stretch our appetite for knowing the Lord.
ADMIRATION
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 (Ps 63:3-5).
All admiration prayers will boost our desire for the Lord, but the psalmist’s song specifically touches on the prayer of praise. The focus of his praise is God’s love.
David considered God’s love to be of greater value than anything else. And, because it’s a love that continues endlessly, he devoted his entire life to praising him for it.
Admiring an aspect of the Lord’s glory (i.e., who he is, what he is like) will definitely stretch our appetite for him. The heart devoted to praising him is hungry to hear what he says about himself. And seeing a truth about him more clearly will enlarge our praise of him even further.
MEDITATE and ADMIRE
One meditation pathway involves recalling a work of the Lord. His works give us amazing displays of what he is like. For instance…
In Psalm 145, David is thinking of past works of God that had been recounted through generations. He sings: and I will meditate on your wonderful works (Ps 145:5).
David enjoyed reflecting on those wonderful things God had done because they revealed his majesty, power, goodness, righteousness, compassion, glory and might (Ps 145:4-12). Every work of God, past and present, is a corridor that displays truths about him, and he leaves the doorways wide open for us to enter, meditate on him and admire his glory.
- Recall a work of God, either in Biblical or recent history. What truth(s) about the Lord comes through clearly in that work?
- Meditate on that truth, keeping this in mind: Meditating on the truth will deepen our awareness of it, help us understand how to apply it to life and stretch our appetite for knowing the Lord.
- Then, move from meditating to admiring that truth about the Lord (prayers of wonder, praise, celebration, thanks, adoration or hunger…or a blend of these).
Next month’s blog will touch on the third prayer type that can stretch our appetite for the Lord.
1Psalm 42:1-2
Why pray HUNGER for God?
Earlier this week I returned from a church camp (mostly young gen) in North Thailand where the theme was ‘Hunger for God’s Glory’. They did more than listen and take notes; they put words and actions to their hunger for him. Anyone with a...
Pray with CONFIDENCE
A shuffling sound woke me. Sandra and our three small children were asleep; the only noise was the whirr of the ceiling fan…and the shuffling sound. I jumped up, looked through the window onto the gated driveway below and saw three figures moving around our vehicle....
Praying with a different spirit
Lines get moved and boundary markers are explained away. Wrong is called right and the impure becomes normal. There is pressure to conform; to step back into the crowd and blend in. But that means losing our set-apart identity and being reflectors of the world rather...
Led into STILLNESS (then pray into chaos)
When bad people prosper, don’t envy them; their time in the sun will end. That’s the opening line of one of David’s song. OK, that gives perspective, but is there some help on dealing with the ‘bad things’ that happen to God’s good people? There is. As Psalm 37 plays...
Mind the gap
Most of us believe the right things about prayer, but our score in doing it isn’t great. Unfortunately we can become so accustomed to it that we no longer mind the gap. The space between prayer beliefs and practice is unlikely to disappear completely, but learning...
Perfectly prayed for!
His peaceful life was broken by a violent storm that swept away all that he loved and valued. Job had no idea that he was at the centre of a satanic challenge to God’s honour, and of the far-reaching consequences of his journey through the storm. In pain and grief,...
Power to GRASP
Empowered: the Lord enabling us to do, say or be something beyond our own ability in order to draw attention to his glory. When the subject of God doing supernatural things in and through us comes up, the focus is usually on power for miraculous signs and wonders, or...
Grow Prayer Bonding
It happened years ago, but it’s etched in my memory. I peddled through the waking market area to the church’s small meeting room on the edge of town. The pedicab outside meant Mr Praise was already there. We started praying. Our focus: the provincial town that had...
Can we ask WHATEVER we wish?
In the post, Venture beyond the shoreline I wrote about shaping our asking to match the extraordinary answers needed; asking “for the big and impossible when those are the kinds of answers needed to make a difference.” Someone asked: How big is our asking license? Are...
Venture beyond the shoreline
Our prayer license carries the signature of Christ and we honour him by growing in it. Packing away the prayer license for any reason – choosing to no longer pray – is uncommon. Less uncommon is the habit of under-using it. Under-use could refer to too little prayer,...
