If you look for Me wholeheartedly, you will find Me.
-Jeremiah 29:13 (NLT)
God wants us to go deeper with Him so He can take us higher. He wants us to learn to turn off the always-on culture, stilling ourselves in His presence so that He can breathe vision and revelation into our souls that will lead us to a place of complete satisfaction in Him.
We must learn to still ourselves and limit distractions in order to receive and fulfill what it is God wants to do in us and through us. We need to start connecting with our own hearts and realize that the hunger burning within us was not meant to be fed with the crumbs of another’s faith, or that good word we heard last week, or the dreams of someone else’s life, but to literally sit at The Lord’s table with Him in His presence and enjoy the feast that He has prepared specifically for each of us.
When I was younger, I went out searching for “the more” in everything and everyone but God, and I was never satisfied. I ran back to church and even then, I soon realized that I was feeding off the crumbs of someone else’s walk with Jesus.
For a season, that worked for me. It’s what slowly began to turn my heart back to God’s plan for my life. But listening to others’ messages in order to be fed was just one layer; they didn’t satisfy my deep cravings; I was left hungry for more.
Too often, we stay stuck in fueling ourselves with the crumbs of someone else’s time with Jesus, but I promise you it will never be enough.
That way will leave you constantly hungry and unfulfilled. You will be left with gaps of hunger and a longing in your heart, leaving you susceptible to the whispered lies of the enemy, compromising God’s perfect plan for your life.
When you go directly to God, pursuing all of Him, He starts to speak to your heart, and His voice comes in with power and a drive that changes everything.
For me, I got to the point where I wasn’t willing to settle and be fed the crumbs of someone else’s faith and someone else’s time with MY Heavenly Father . . . I wanted all of Him.
I wanted everything God’s Word says is available to me. I wanted that rich and satisfying life. I wanted my future hope. I wanted to live the miraculous and break free of this boring, mundane life. I wanted to destroy everything in my life that set itself up against the Kingdom of Heaven. I wanted to get rid of everything that was not of God that was weighing me down, preventing me from crossing over and into my promised land. I wanted His supernatural strength to fill me in every weak area of my life until I could stand victorious in Christ Jesus. I was refusing to settle for anything less than God’s best for my life, and that meant removing the distractions, the temptations, the fillers, and everything that prevented me from getting there!
I believed with everything in me that God had a plan for my life, and I wanted it . . . I wanted all of it!!
I desired for God’s presence to be so thick
and so tangible that I ran from the distractions and ran towards my destiny.
The more I dined with Him, the more I began to taste the very essence of who He is, and I lost all cravings for the empty fillers this world has to offer. It was only after I began to fill my deepest desires with His Omnipresence that those chains of false freedom broke in my life, and they no longer had a hold over me.
But I had to choose to go after what my Bible says is mine and available like never before.
No more being passive.
No more settling for crumbs, feeding off of others’ testimonies.
I wanted my own.
It was that drive and that hunger that said I will not stop until I see Him, feel Him, and taste all that He has to offer!
He satisfies our hunger in ways beyond human comprehension. Nothing can compare to who He is and what He has for our lives. The only way we will ever know these ridiculously amazing truths is if we begin to take steps away from the fillers and distractions and toward the stillness of a life with Him.
It’s where rivers never run dry, where His peace never leaves us, and where His joy becomes our strength to persevere. It’s where the mundane becomes an incredible adventure, where the supernatural becomes natural in our everyday life, and where we taste and see that there is nothing that will ever satisfy our cravings and that deep hunger within, like Him.
Taste and see that the Lord is good. Oh, the joys of those who take refuge in Him! Fear the Lord, you, His godly people, for those who fear Him will have all they need. Even strong young lions sometimes go hungry, but those who trust in the Lord will lack no good thing. —Psalm 34:8-10 NLT
If today’s encouragement spoke to you, my book Life is Muddy: How to Conquer the Hard, Heavy, and Hurtful Parts of Life with God is an excellent resource that will help you identify the areas that are keeping you stuck and give you tools to deepen your faith, drawing you closer to God. Grab your signed copy HERE while they are on sale!
