Thou hast made us for Thyself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in Thee.
-Saint Augustine

A God-Shaped Hole

Throughout this pandemic, while a majority of people have been stuck at home, I have been given a fresh perspective on how humans have looked to the world to satisfy them. We desire safety. We desire peace. We desire knowledge. We desire entertainment. Yet in this time, we have not been guaranteed any of that as our world has fallen into chaos. What has the Lord taught you through it all?

Once each of us wakes up in the morning, our waking is sure to be accompanied by desire. Our empty stomachs desire food, our hearts desire companionship, and our dry mouths demand water. God has designed all of us, as humans, to have desires. We are led by them, for better or for worse. Yet, those longings are also made to point us to something greater, rather than simply captivating our thoughts, emotions, and actions. The deepest and most earnest yearnings are designed to point us to Someone greater. Our desires are meant to show us our need for the great Fulfiller.

Jesus uses these innate desires in His exchange with the Canaanite woman at the well to show her how He has made something greater. 

But whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.
-John 4:14

Unless we find our satisfaction entirely in Jesus, all we have are failed attempts at fulfilling our deepest desires. Our flesh leads us to desire relationships, status, friendships, popularity, you name it. You can see it in every human: a longing for something greater. It drives our world.

Just like the woman at the well, we are made for more than endless striving. The striving for satisfaction is what leads us to miss our goal when we forget to sit and rest in the presence of our Lord and find our delight in Him. Why is this? Because we have been made to worship our Creator and be completely satisfied in Him.

It is simple to identify the nonbelievers’ lack of satisfaction in Christ because they don’t have the foundational requirement for divine satisfaction: a relationship with Jesus. However, even Christians struggle to find satisfaction entirely in God. No matter how much we strive for lesser things, we are only truly satisfied in Him because He has created us. He knows what we need!

Turn Your Eyes Upon Him

One of my favorite Psalms is Psalm 63 because it reminds the believer to shift the longings of your heart to desiring God. The Psalmist reminds its readers by saying,

O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you: my soul thirst for you.
-Psalm 63:1

Can we as believers echo this Scripture? Can we honestly say God alone is our heart’s cry? Can we say our souls thirst for the Lord, day in and day out? Examining ourselves and finding we fail to do this, Scripture reminds us why we should make the intentional effort to do so:

Because Your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you…in Your name I will life up my hands.
-Psalm 63:3-4

The depths of His greatness are unsearchable and unknowable. We can spend all of our life seeking Him, and still have endless things to learn about our Savior. No matter what age or stage of life you are in, we are all welcome to seek and find our satisfaction and fulfillment in God. 

“The Scriptures are shallow enough for a babe to come and drink without fear of drowning and deep enough for a theologian to swim in without ever touching the bottom.”
-St. Jerome

Through Christ, we’ve been given access to know Him through cultivating a relationship with Him. When we let our longings lead us to our Savior, He will fill our hearts and satisfy our desires, setting our souls to rest in Him. At His feet, He offers fullness of joy. Whatever desires we lay at His feet, He has promised to be better than them. 

Whatever your heart is longing for in this moment – companionship, financial stability, another achievement – lay it down on the altar of our King. He is waiting for you, and He promises to fulfill you more than that longing ever will. His steadfast love is promised to be better than life itself, and better than anything this world could offer.

Delight yourself in the LORD, and He will give you the desires of your heart.
-Psalm 37:4

When we delight ourself in Him, finding our joy and satisfaction in Him, He transforms the desires of our heart into desire for the things of God and for Himself. He promises always to give Himself away, and to come close when sought after (Jeremiah 29:13).

I pray for your every desire, want, and hope to push you to seek the King of your heart, and move you into a greater fellowship with Him.

May we stand before the throne and sing these truths before our King:

We long, we long, we long for You and no one else
Could satisfy like You do, Jesus.
-“Great Assembly” by Steffany Gretzinger