Desiring More of Him

by Susan Sampson

I hated vegetables growing up.  Don’t most kids?  But now I actually like them and even crave some of them.  I wouldn’t be caught dead eating green peppers as a kid, but now I love green peppers and onions on my pizza!  So what changed?  My pediatrician tells me to keep offering new foods to my children and once they taste them enough times, their taste buds will change and they will desire them.

Psalm 34:8a says, “Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good!”  Our Falling in Love Again with Your Lord lecture notes say that, “In Psalm 63 David is feasting on the royal delicacies of a divine banquet.”  But this didn’t happen overnight.  He developed an appetite for the Lord.  He learned to do this.  He sought the Lord earnestly — over and over again.  When he fell, he repented of his sin and returned to the Lord.  He tasted over and over again and discovered that the Lord was good — that His lovingkindness was better than life itself!

I wrote that my favorite meal is Thanksgiving turkey and all the trimmings.  But I know if I ate 2 or 3 candy bars beforehand I absolutely would not want any of the Thanksgiving meal — in fact, it would be repulsive to me and I would feel sick at the sight and smell of it.  When I fill up on the counterfeit which looks so incredibly appealing, I lose all desire for the real thing — the only thing that can truly satisfy — Christ.

I love when Laurie told the story of the homeless man who used to look for food in dumpsters.¹  What a helpful and vivid picture of our flesh!  Rotten, foul, repulsive, disgusting and yet we continue to plunge right in.  “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags” (Isa. 64:6).  I don’t want to go dumpster diving any more. I want what David has in Psalm 63.  I want my soul to be truly satisfied in Christ alone.  Lord, lift us out of the miry pit, out of the dumpster!  Turn our eyes away from worthless things!  May we no longer be deceived by the taste of Turkish Delight!  Turn our eyes away from the temporal.  Give us grace to stop bowing to the world around us, the enemy, and our flesh!

We are so weak, Lord.  We are unable.  Please by your grace carry us to your banquet table.  Cause us to thirst for Christ alone.  Give us grace to kill off the filthy flesh.

Help us STOP

• believing the lies
• indulging the flesh
• thinking according to our old girl
• being carried along by the ways of the world

Help us START

• Trusting in Christ
• Delighting in Christ and His Word
• Fasting from wrong thinking
• Resting in His love and sovereignty
• Being content in His purpose
• Following Him in His Word to be filled²

“…man does not live by bread alone, but man LIVES by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord” (Deut. 8:3b).

This week in our small group we talked about really asking the Lord to show us what is preventing us from living out the truth He is speaking to our hearts each week.  This week take time not just to write out your 2 sentences on how you did with your Taking the Truth to Heart, but if it didn’t go well, let us ask the Lord to show us why.  Laurie encouraged us to take time to write down all the junk we’ve been turning to and digesting to be able to see it for what it truly is.  Please, Lord, show each of us what is keeping us from having a soul that is so satisfied as with fat and rich food that our mouths would be praising you with joyful lips!

The Word of the Lord tells us that He delights in us at all times.  Will we delight ourselves in Him?  Or will we choose the dumpster?  Lord, give us grace to choose you as you first chose us!

Footnotes:
¹Laurie owed this illustration to Bob George in his book Classic Christianity.
²These START/STOP points modified from the Falling in Love Again with Your Lord lecture (or notes).