Hungry I come to You

Have you ever sat in a church where you literally understand nothing? You want so badly to hear and learn, and yet you don't know what the people are saying at all. You have picked up a few words, enough to know when someone is praying, or when you should stand and sing, but as the message begins you feel a heaviness inside you. You have to cheat off the guy sitting next to you just to know where in the Bible the pastor is preaching from. You strain to hear just one word, any word that you understand so that you can learn and grow. It's an intense need that is hard to describe. The need to hear, understand, learn and grow.

Welcome to church in another culture. I love church. I love to learn and hear from God. I love that feeling of rejuvenation that comes every Sunday. The way all the voices melt together in praise and worship to our Savior is incredible. Church for me is a small glimpse of what eternity will be and I look forward to that glimpse every week.

There have been days in my church at home where I feel like I comprehended very little of what my pastor said, I mean, he is a smart guy, and I am not so smart. But never in my life have I felt so completely lost and I did today.

As I sat in church today, straining to hear just one word that I understood, begging God to reveal himself to me even amidst the language barrier, God really convicted me of something.

When, in my life have I ever truly hungered for Christ like this? When have I ever had this unending need to meet with the Holy Spirit, this need to understand something, or anything of what is being taught so I can grow in Him?

Have I ever truly felt the need to BEG God to reveal himself to me? Have I ever felt so desperate for a morsel of His voice that I begged Him to work a miracle?

I have been reading psalms in my devotions, and I can't tell you the number of times the Psalmist says he Hungers and Thirsts after God.

Psalm 63:1 says, "O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you, my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water."

 I didn't understand this kind of spiritual thirst until I was in a place where I couldn't have my thirst quenched the way Church always has. My time with God has been sweeter than ever before, but it made me realize that I have been taking God for granted. 

My challenge to you is this: Do you hunger and thirst after God? When you sit in church, or read you Bible do you so long to hear just one word from God? Does your heart ache for just a glimpse of your savior? I pray that, unlike me, it doesn't take a church in France to open your eyes to the marvelous intimacy we can have with our Creator. Search Him out, seek Him and you will find him, ask and you shall receive.

This song has never been so real to me in my life.