Yesterday during worship time at church I felt God begin to speak a message to me. Some of it came during the song that we were singing, and some of it was Him bringing the words to a devotional I had done earlier that week back to me. And I stood there in awe as the creator of the universe began to knit these two things together to give me this message...
The song we were singing was 'Reign Over Me" by Dustin Smith. And in part of that song we sang the words "You're all that I want, All that I've ever needed. You satisfy every longing in me". As we sang this I felt God pressing the question (to all of us), "Do I really satisfy your every longing?". I felt like He was saying that we can sing those words when we are standing before Him on Sunday morning and truly "want" to mean it, but then Monday comes... In fact, then Monday thru Saturday comes, and sometimes it even happens as soon as we get out of church on Sunday. What I mean by that is it doesn't take long before something starts to pull at our flesh and create desires in us that are not looking toward God to be satisfied. And those desires don't necessarily have to be sinful, they just have to get in the way of what God wants. Please don't get me wrong, I believe we server a God who wants us to enjoy life. I fully believe He delights in our joy. But I don't think we delights in us chasing "things" that make us happy. Especially when those things either begin to fill a longing in us, or get in the way of our time with Him. For example, you might have a favorite show or activity in the evening, but God might be calling you to spend that time with Him. Would you need to take into consideration that you would have to give that "thing" up if that was the exact time He wanted with you, or would you just go spend that time with Him? When our spirit begins to line up with His spirit, then our longings begin to line up for His purpose for us. However, our flesh is always going to try to fight that. It is in those times that have the opportunity to show God that we are not driven by our fleshly desires, and we really do want to let Him satisfy out every longing.
The thing I read earlier last week that God had brought back to me was about gold. When gold is found it is not where you might expect it. It is in the dirt, among other rocks and sand. It is not found in a pretty place and it not instantly perfect gold when it's found. It is full of impurities because of the environment it has been in. It is not until the goldsmith works with that gold and begins to refine it that it starts to really have it's value. You see gold is full of impurities and the only way to get rid of those it to heat it up to a very high temperature and let those impurities rise to the top. The goldsmith will then scrape the "stuff" that has risen to the top off, leaving the left over gold more pure. However, this is not a "one and done" process. This may have to be done several times in order for this gold to be fully purified. Each time the heat is applied, more impurities will rise to the top and can be scraped away. And each time the gold is made more pure.....God works with us in a very similar fashion. He finds us and He pulls us out of the world we are living in. He sees our worth even when we (or anyone else) can't yet. But God wants to put us through a process of purification, just like the gold. But we have to allow this process to take place. Unfortunately we tend to bail out to soon when the heat begins to get turned up around us, and the process doesn't get to do exactly what God wanted it to. He will allow situations to happen that bring our impurities to the top...even those fleshly desires. Then He will scrape them away, if we let Him. And each time we allow Him to work in us and on us like this, He leaves us better than He found us. Closer to Him, and noticeably changed! With desires that line up with Him...
If you know you struggle to allow God to "satisfy your every longing", then maybe He wants to refine you and allow some of those impurities to rise to the top so HE can get rid of them. Don't let this process create fear in you, it is always God's desire to leave us better than He found us, and to draw us closer to Him. And trust me when I say this world has nothing to offer that even comes close to comparing to what God has for you. So spend some time with Him, get honest and very real with Him, and let Him search you fully and get honest and real back with you. I promise you won't regret it.
God, thank You for finding us and pulling us up out of the places that You do. Thank You that you want to refine us, You want to be the reason our souls feel satisfied, You want relationship with us. Please Holy Spirit help us to put our fleshly desires in their proper place and seek You above anything and everything in our lives. And let the changes that God does in us speak louder than our words so people will see the difference, and want what we have with You God. In Jesus name, Amen.
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