Earlier this week, I was in Psalm 42:1-2. “As the deer pants for the water brooks, So my soul pants for You O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God; When shall I come and appear before God;”

I had been recognizing that my spiritual cup had run dry, and I was longing for God, for personal time with Him.

At the same time, I began studying our scripture for today in Matthew.

Matthew 5:6; Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied.

I began looking up the definitions for these words in the Strong’s Concordance Dictionary. The definitions I found there are: “Hungry; means to suffer want, to be needy, to seek with eager desire.” “To suffer thirst means here figuratively, those who are said to thirst, who painfully feel their want of, and eagerly long for, those things by which the soul is refreshed, supported, strengthened.”

As I read these definitions, a mental image is formed in my mind. The longing I had lately was one described here. I could painfully feel my want. I am seeking with eager desire to see what I need to do to get this. I was missing it. There was an obvious deep need, and I was eagerly longing for it to be filled.

I was brought back to a time recently, and it’s still going on with my husband and I. Life has had some rough bumps lately, and it’s a season where things have been a little more occupied with other people, situations, and things. The time for us had been less, and I was feeling that. When we don’t have the connection we need, the time to talk, or just be together, I can feel it deeply. We have to make an effort to intentionally grab that time, and we were able to do so last week. The marriage relationship is important; there is a reason why God parallels it with our relationship with Him. It’s also why the enemy is trying to destroy it so much.

I have been feeling the same longing and need in my relationship with Jesus. Life and marketing have gotten in the way and have been all-consuming some days. I have slipped back into old habits of feeling like I need to figure it out, fix it, or make it happen, and that is not where God wants me, because then I am dependent on myself instead of Him.

God has led me to a place where I am to practice 30 minutes of “be still” time each day. Sometimes it is all 30 minutes, other times, 2 -15 minute segments, and other times, 3-10 minute segments. He has shown me that I need to get back to a life of seeking Him first, and He will put the pieces together and guide my steps.

Without Him, first in my life, I began to feel the longing, the hunger, and thirst because I need Him for life!

God says those who hunger and thirst for righteousness will be satisfied.

“Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life, he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst.” John 6:35

We need Jesus for life!

As I sit and be still, He fills me with His presence, and He speaks to me. It is amazing what happens when I sit quietly for more than 2 minutes lol. When I allow Him to renew my mind and get back to a place where I am seeking Him first, His wisdom, and His righteousness, I find peace again, I am filled and satisfied.

I did a podcast interview the other day, I was asked the question about the ache, and the hole, I talked about in my book, Created to Relate: Living Beyond Religion. This is the longing, and the painful wanting that we are talking about. Jesus is the only one who can fill that in us. We can search all our lives, and try to fill it with different things, but it leaves us wanting and dry. That is what I have learned and I am still learning to this day, when I am not going to Jesus for that hungering and thirsting to be satisfied.

What things or people are you going to in order to try to get those longings filled?

What mindsets or habits keep you in a cycle of longing or painful want?

Would you take even 10 minutes to be still with Jesus today? Would you let Him show you why you are in that place, and the root of how you got there?

Will you let Him be the one who fills you? He promises to satisfy.