Let Your Soul Yearn

How lovely is your dwelling place, O LORD Almighty! My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the LORD; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.
Psalm 84:1-2

Make sure that your soul longs for God and not for your past and secret loves. Do you remember all the loving concern and attention that you used to give to food? Can you recall how your heart used to long for all those foods that were forbidden on your latest diet? Do you remember how your heart and flesh seemed to cry out to be healthy and to be rid of the excess weight? Now, give ALL of this to God. Give your attention and concern to God and to His kingdom and His children. Let Him be the One you truly love, and let your soul long for His approval. Respond as your heart and flesh cry out for His perfect guidance and for the contentment that comes from obedience. The Lord’s dwelling place has so much more to offer than the pantry!

If you trust God to guide you and feed you, you naturally will not focus on the food at all. A person could “believe” that God will provide, but to TRUST Him fully means that you are happy with the amount of food He gives you. In fact, you cannot get over the fact that He lets you eat sweet and salty foods every day. He could have made everything tasteless! You trust that this amount of food is the best for your heart, soul, and body, even if the amount is a lot smaller than you would have chosen for yourself. The person who does NOT fully trust God to provide, however, will feel obligated to focus on food and yearn for it all throughout the day. The next thing you know, he is unsure about weight loss and is back on the scales; he grows uneasy about eating regular foods, and he is back to counting fat grams and calories. This lack of trust in God’s total reign could send you back down a path of slavery of self-employment or being your own god. Yuck! If that happens, you will find that you have totally lost your focus, and like Peter in Matthew 14:30-31, you are sinking in the water. Follow Peter’s example – cry out to Jesus to save you. Your sinking and His saving are part of the process that Jesus will allow as He trains you in obedience. May your flesh cry out for the living God and not for the food.