My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the Lord: my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God (Psalm 84:2).
On any given Sunday across America, church services take place that can only be described as cold and lifeless. Attempting to bring life to their services, some faith groups change worship styles, or song books or even pastors. This may seem to work, but they represent only surface changes and do not really go to the heart of the matter. I love church. I love it when our congregation, with one heart, presses into His Presence and experiences a spirit of joy and sense of fulfillment unlike anything found in the world. But, as a pastor, I feel compelled to lovingly warn us of a constant danger that we face. It is something that can kill a church just as surely as unbelief or division. It is COMFORT. It is becoming satisfied with, and settling for, a few cozy minutes together as a group. Do you recall the church of Laodicea? Now that was a BLESSED church – and the very blessings they enjoyed created a cooling effect in their spiritual passion. How can we avoid this same outcome in our local fellowships? What will inoculate us against growing cold and indifferent in our personal and corporate worship? The Psalmist puts it this way: COME HUNGRY. His hunger for God's House was a hunger for God's Presence – for God Himself. The primary reason we gather together should be to experience God's Presence as a Corporate Body. But it begins as a personal desire. The Psalmist had an appetite for God, pure and simple. Not just an, I-have-a-hankering-for-something-but-I-don’t know what kind of hunger. He is expressing an internal craving that demands to be satisfied. His desire is so strong that it cannot be ignored (my soul longs…my heart and flesh cry out) for You! When is the last time you woke up on a Sunday morning with that kind of soul hunger? When is the last time you spent the morning with your heart and flesh silently (but fervently) praying – crying out for a move of God in the morning service? For too many of God's people, this language does not compute. To speak of hungering for spiritual things doesn't resonate with us. That’s because we don't really know what it means to be spiritually hungry. We have spoiled our appetite with other things. We have gorged ourselves on the junk-food of this world. We have killed our longing. We have dulled our spiritual desire and we wonder why we are no longer interested in church or moved during worship. There is only one answer: GET HUNGRY!
