Daily Devotion

March 16, 2016

How’s your spiritual appetite?


“When my heart whispered, ‘Seek God,’ my whole being replied, ‘I’m seeking him!’”

Ps 27:8 TM

If you spend hours each day watching television and can’t find a few minutes for prayer and reading the Scriptures, you’ve a spiritual appetite problem—one that needs your attention. David Brainerd, an eighteenth-century missionary to the American Indians, wrote in his journal: “I withdrew to my usual place of retirement in great tranquility. I knew only to breathe out my desire for a perfect conformity to Him in all things. God was so precious that the world with all its enjoyments seemed infinitely vile. I have no more desire for the favor of men than for pebbles. At noon I had the most ardent longings after God which I ever felt in my life. In my secret retirement I could do nothing but tell my dear Lord in a sweet calmness that I knew I desired nothing but Him, nothing but holiness, that He had given me these desires and only He could give me the things I desired. I never seemed to be so unhinged from myself…so wholly devoted to God. My heart was swallowed up in God most of the day.” The Psalmist felt the same way: “I desire you more than anything on earth. My health may fail, and my spirit may grow weak, but God remains the strength of my heart; he is mine forever…how good it is to be near God! I have made the Sovereign Lord my shelter” (Ps 73:25-28 NLT). You can tell how spiritually healthy you are by your appetite for the things of God.

Share