When you’re hungry, you crave real [good] food. When you’re working hard, you crave thirst-quenching icy cold water. When you’re exhausted, you crave rest... a good night’s sleep. Basically, whatever afflicts your body, you know what to do to satisfy it’s cravings.
How about your relationship with God? Is your relationship satisfying? Do you crave Him? Many of us may not even feel the need for MORE or DEEPER connection to God. You’re satisfied with your relationship with Him as it is. It’s tough to get excited about reading the Bible, going to church, Sunday School, missions, outreach or asking for the Holy Spirit to move in your life... if your CRAVING is missing. How does one go about developing or reviving a craving for God?
Before we probe for an understanding of that question, this fact must be acknowledged: far too many Christians in the world today have a woefully inadequate view of God. They either have not been taught correctly, not listened and learned, or simply chosen to parse their views of Him to synchronize with their lifestyles. That’s why a lot of the so-called Christians in the world today are not living and acting like true followers of Christ.
God designed us for a relationship based on craving Him, but it is entirely possible to be so detached from this connection that we aren’t even aware we have it. The necessary craving has been temporarily satisfied with worldly things that feed us just enough to camouflage our real hunger for Him.
It is too easy to become a “comfortable Christian” and we must always search for ways to express our active devotion to God and Jesus Christ. It starts and sustains through our Christian life by seeing Him in the right way... as the Holy God. When we view Him in the right way, we become moldable and malleable in the hands of God. Our devotion and commitment to Him grows beyond what we could ever imagine possible.
With our Holy God anything is possible. God is ready, willing and able to help us develop the craving we must have to be pleasing and satisfying to Him. In the beginning when God made man, He made him in His likeness. If God made man like Him in certain capacities, then we are able to see Him as He is... a Holy God.
Jesus said.... “What is impossible with men is possible with God.” (Matthew 18:27) So if you want to attempt the impossible, don’t attempt is with your strength. We need God. He said, “…Apart from me, you can do nothing...” (John 15:5) “You will not succeed by your own strength or power, but by my Spirit says the Lord.” Zechariah. 4:6 The Apostle Paul said of himself... "I can do all things through Christ". Eph. 3:20 (Amplified version) says, "God is able to do superabundantly, far over and above, all that we dare ask or think. Infinitely beyond our highest prayers, desires, thought, hopes, or dreams."
A little taste of God should make us want more and more of Him. He becomes the truest craving in our lives. How do we get that craving? Clear away the clutter that clouds and distorts your life’s journey. Focus on God and commit to learning who He is. Be relentless in your quest to know Him. He gave us a guide book – the Bible. Use it! Relate your life path to the faithful examples of those who saw Him and understood Him in the right way. These stories freely available in the Bible, will help you build the craving you need to have a full and vital relationship with the Holy God.
Consider these examples as a way to envision your potential to crave your father in Heaven.
"There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job; and that man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil" (Job 1:1). Job was a believer, a deeply devout and prayerful man. Surely he knew God as well as anyone possibly could. Surely he had a craving, an awe and reverence for the majesty of God. But then came pain, loss and misery so great that it was like he was living in a spiritual and physical desert, void of anything good or positive. In the midst of Job's darkness God spoke in his holy majesty to Job:
Will you even put me in the wrong? Will you condemn me that you may be justified? Have you an arm like God, and can you thunder with a voice like his? Deck yourself with majesty and dignity; clothe yourself with glory and splendor … Look on everyone that is proud, and bring him low; and tread down the wicked where they stand … Then will I also acknowledge to you, that your own right hand can give you the victory … Who then is he that can stand before me? Who has given to me that I should repay him? Whatever is under the whole heaven is mine (40:8-14; 41:10-11).
In the end Job responds with an enlightened view and completely new understanding of the Holy God. Job says, Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me which I did not know … I had heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees thee; therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes (42:3-6).
Or... how about that incredible story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the book of Daniel. We should all be in awe at the guts and determination these guys had that clearly flew in the face of the culture, kings, and royal decrees of the time. Even when face to face with the king of the most powerful nation on the earth, they did not back down from their convictions and refused to bow down before an idol and violate commandments 1 and 2 of the law God gave to His people. Judged worthy of death by Nebukanezer... into the furnace they were thrown and out of the furnace they came, not a hair singed on their heads. Their “belief”, trust and faith in the Holy God preserved them alive! God glorified Himself, his great name and power on that day before the pagan Babylonians and King Nebukanezer.
Christians say they trust in the Word of God. But sometimes our convictions fall short of what we claim to believe and we compromise in small and sometimes large ways. If our faith was a matter of life or death, I think there would be fewer Christians, but more committed, passionate and zealous ones.
The convictions of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were so strong that they defied the most powerful ruler of the time and risked death because of what they knew to be true. What they believed, their craving for the true God, was more important to them than their lives. Do you believe what you know of God to be powerful and strong enough to empower you to stand for Him against any adversity? Would you risk being thrown into a furnace to stand by what you believe? We don’t like to think about situations like that do we? Persecution will never happen to me. I hope not, because without a daily growing, active, persistent craving for the Holy God of Truth, we will likely come up with a bunch of excuses that would compromise our “belief” to save our skin. Without the right view and understanding of God... sticking to your convictions would be very difficult.
There is an interesting verse in Ecclesiastes 3:11 which talks about mankind’s longing for spiritual things… “He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.”
Have you ever stopped to consider the reality of that truth… that God has put eternity in our hearts and that we have within us an indescribable longing, a craving for the Holy God. It is a craving that we try to satisfy with all manner of things. Some travel endlessly trying to find the perfect place… Some people study all their life in pursuit of more knowledge… Some people go from one relationship to another looking for satisfaction… Others try to fulfill this inner desire with things like drugs, material possessions, money, power, position and fame.
But it doesn’t matter what we do… or what lengths we go to… the craving goes unsatisfied if our lives are not centered and focused on God. Not 80%, or 90%.. it’s all the way, 100% of our vitality... craving hard after the Holy God.
Christians frequently talk of revival or a restoration of genuine Biblical spiritual values. That is a worthy pursuit, but it only happens when we see God majestic in holiness, and when we see ourselves, as disobedient sinners. When we can see the depths of our own brokenness and need for repentance, we will feel the unspeakable joy of His forgiveness. We will crave after the magnificence of God, we will hunger for his holiness... to see it more and to live it more: that's genuine restoration of a heart craving God. Again... it only comes from seeing God in the right way. Only then, will what you believe be anchored unshakeable in His Truth.
As children of God, we accept God’s claim upon our lives and in return, He gives us His Holy Spirit, who works in our lives to bring about a miraculous regeneration of our heart, soul and mind. Jesus clearly stated in one of the Beatitudes that righteousness is something we ought to long (crave) for… blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness…
We do not give God authority over our lives to God. He has it whether we like it or not. What utter folly it is to live and act as though we have any rights at all to call God’s wisdom and truth into question. Few things are more humbling, few things give us that sense of raw majesty, as the truth that God is utterly authoritative. He is the entire Supreme Court, the Chief Justice, the entire Legislature, and the Chief Executive. After Him, there is no appeal.
To be gripped by the omnipotence (or sovereignty) of God is either a marvelous thing in our lives because we know He is for us, or a terrifying thing because we have moved away from Him and therefore He is against us. Indifference or apathy to his omnipotence means we haven't seen Him for who He is. The sovereign authority of the living God is a refuge full of joy and power for those who live in obedience and reverence of His Holiness. Anything else... is a pathway to destruction.
God is incomparable. His Holiness is His utterly unique divine essence. It determines all that He is and does and is determined by no one or by any circumstance or situations. His Holiness is what he is as God which no one else is or ever will be. Call it his majesty, his divinity, his greatness, his value as “the pearl of great price”, something we feeble humans can comprehend. In the end language that attempts to describe Him runs out. In the word "Holy" we have sailed to the world's end in the utter silence of reverence, wonder and awe. There may yet be more for us to know of God, but that time is beyond this life of reckoning. "The Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him" (Habakkuk 2:20).
Someday, the Holy God will eliminate every competing god and make his Holiness known in awesome splendor to every humble creature. Why not figure Him out now, while you still can? Have you humbled yourself to go hard after the Holy God and develop a craving for his majesty and Holiness?
If His Holiness is not part of your daily thinking, then you are probably suffering from spiritual mediocrity. Do you feel shallow and superficial in your relationship with God? Many do and don’t even realize it.
How do we restore and then satisfy our hunger for God? No mortal can answer the question with finality. But know this... God has to be part of our seeking Him and we have to see and know Him in the right way before “we and He” can conspire to enrich our hunger for Him.
To anyone who truly desires to feel the majesty and holiness of God in your life, reach out and take hold of this promise from God, who is ever alive, authoritative, omnipotent, resplendent, revered, holy and glorious... "You will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me (go hard after me) with all your heart" (Jeremiah 29:12-13).
