With A Longing That Has Become Pain

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From A.W. Tozer

Revival: The Arrow of Infinite Desire

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.
-Matthew 5:6

These words are addressed to those of God's children who have been pierced with the arrow of infinite desire, who yearn for God with a yearning that has overcome them, who long with a longing that has become pain.

"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled."...

A dead body feels no hunger and the dead soul knows not the pangs of holy desire. "If you want God," said the old saint, "you have already found Him." Our desire for fuller life is proof that some life must be there already....

In nature everything moves in the direction of its hungers. In the spiritual world it is not otherwise. We gravitate toward our inward longing, provided of course that those longings are strong enough to move us. Impotent dreaming will not do. The religious urge that is not followed by a corresponding act of the will in the direction of that urge is a waste of emotion. The Size of the Soul, 17-18.

"Oh, God, I have that longing to know You, that hunger and thirst for righteousness, that 'desire for fuller life.' Move me along in the direction of that hunger, Lord, and give me the strength to follow 'in the direction of that urge.' Amen."

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