"At His Feet: Devoted Love"
"An Intercessor's Spiritual Appetite"
"If you hunger for holiness, God will satisfy your longing, good
measure, and flowing over"
(LH, vol. III, p. 935, antiphon for
EP)
Jesus desires
to continue to live his holy, spiritual hunger and thirst in the world through
the hearts of intercessors: A driven hunger to do the Father's will, and an
insatiable thirst for the salvation of souls. In order for this to happen, our
inordinate, worldly "appetites and cravings" need to be purified. Then, desire
will be awakened within us to our vital need for God. In John 6:27, Jesus
exhorts us, "Do not work for food that perishes but for the food that
endures for eternal life, which the Son of man will give you." Jesus promises
to give us the "essential food and drink" that will satisfy our spiritual
senses (faculties): "Whoever comes to me will never hunger" (John 6:35);
and, "Let anyone who thirsts come to me and drink" (John 7:37B).
We hear this
awakened heart desire in the words of the psalm writer:
"As the deer longs for streams of water,
So my soul longs for you, O God.
My being thirsts for God, the living God"
(Ps. 42:2-3A)
And,
"O God, you are my God--for you I long!
For you my body yearns, for you my
soul thirsts…
For your love is better than life…"
(Ps. 63:2, 4)
We note the repetitive phrase, "For you". When our
healed and purified hearts are "for God" we begin to love God more
deeply. A heart that is for God seeks to please him in every way. In The Song of Songs the
beloved speaks to her lover, "How much more delightful is your love than
wine" (Songs 1:2). When one is in love with God, one begins to be fed and
satisfied at a deeper heart level:
"When I found your words, I devoured them;
they became my joy and the happiness of my heart,
Because I bore your name,
O LORD, God of hosts"
(Jer. 15:16)
Then, one desires to obey God more readily: "How you loved me
as a bride, following me in the desert, in a land unsown" (Jer. 2:2).
This love manifests in one's obedience to God through his word.
In the desert
Jesus demonstrates his immense love of the Father. After his baptism at the
Jordan River, Jesus is driven by the Holy Spirit into the desert to be tempted
by the devil. In this scene we note the disciplined interiority of "mature
love". Jesus fasts for forty days and forty nights. We are told in Mt. 4:2 that
"afterwards he was hungry." It is
precisely at this time that the tempter approaches him. In the ensuing
spiritual battle--for true love often proves itself in the midst of spiritual
combat--Jesus rebukes the devil by saying:
"One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes
forth from the mouth of God"
(Mt. 4:4)
These words contrast bodily hunger with a deep, interior,
spiritually-vital need. We recall that in the Garden of Eden, the "fall" of
humanity involved food and the disobedience of God. The word of God is truly
"soul food" for the prayer warrior.
In the above
passage we are told that the word comes from the "mouth" of God. The Father
speaks forth His life-giving word through the breath of the Holy Spirit. The
word of God is meant to be necessary "nutrition" from God's mouth to our
hearts. We are told in Is. 55:11:
"So shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth;
It shall not return to me void,
But shall do my will,
Achieving the end for which I sent it."
God's word and his will are very closely related. His word
fulfills his will in the world through a loving, obedient heart. This is true
in a pre-eminent way in the life of Jesus, who is the Word himself.
Questions:
1) What might be one or more of my own inordinate, worldly
"appetites"?
2) Where do I struggle to obey God's word in my life?
Scriptures:
Ps. 23:1-3A; Ps. 84:1-3; John 4:34; John 6:32-33; Rev. 21:6;
Rev. 22:17
