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
