Daily Thought for Saturday 22nd March 2025
“God, you are my God. I worship you.
In my heart, I long for you,
as I would long for a stream
in a scorching desert.”
Psalm 63:1 (CEV)
Desperately seeking … God!
Susan Brown
Longing.
When was the last time you longed for someone or something?
I mean longed in such a way that everything else faded away?
While most of us can think of the last time we got irritated or even angry – and while we can (I hope) think of feeling moved, or passionate about a cause, or feeling filled with a deep sense of love – I suspect many of us might have trouble coming up with a time when we felt a deep, overwhelming sense of longing.
How come?
Could it be that longing is a step too far?
Longing is something that can so easily consume people and take over their lives. Longing runs the danger of leading to a loss of control of things and of ourselves.
And for many of us, that is not a comfortable thought.
At all.
Yet the words of the first verse of Psalm 63 are quite beautiful. They place God front and centre of the writer’s life. They reveal a yearning for God which doesn’t diminish the writer in any way, but which instead shows the writer’s absolute trust in God, as God.
And perhaps that is what we find most threatening about such a longing.
It is relatively(!) easy to believe in God and to decide to follow Christ.
What is a lot more difficult is learning to live in a way that allows God to take the reins in our lives, as well as in the life of the world.
Longing for God like that, is about giving God … God’s place.
It’s about looking to God to take the lead – and not charging ahead ourselves.
The Psalm writer knew that God knew their deepest needs and the writer made the space to let God identify and meet those needs.
Lent is about practising making that positive God space.
Lent is about daring to long, truly long, for God … to be God.
With all our hearts, souls, minds and strength.
Shall we pray?:
Eternal God, help me simply to sit with you. And in the silence, fill my soul with longing – a longing for you;
A longing that leads me to fullness of life in you. Amen.
Susan Brown is a retired minister, living in the Borders, having worked in the Highlands as well as the Lowlands!