Invitation to More

by Raquel Schwärzler, Art Director CBN Germany 

“God! You are my God! I long for you, I need you! As a dry steppe longs for rain, so I thirst, O God, for you. I seek you in your sanctuary to see your power and glory. Your love means more to me than my life!” Psalm 63:1-4 

This is just one of many examples where the Psalmist describes his passion and deep desire for God.  The Psalmist certainly had some special experiences with God, as you can read in the other Psalms, and yet he continues to long for God. I don’t believe that at any point in our faith journey we come to a point where we should stop seeking God. No matter how long you have been a believer or how much you have experienced with God, He always invites us to More: More encounters, more joy, more revelation, more faith, more miracles, and more hope. And God desires the same for us! It is important to know that God longs for communion with us more than we long for Him.  

His love is passionate and he wants to meet us, yet it is always an invitation – he does not force or impose himself on us. In worship, we sometimes sing “We want more of you, God!“. However, I sometimes feel that God is saying to us, “I want more of YOU.” It is up to us how much of our heart and life we want to give to God and how much we seek after Him. The Psalmist writes that he seeks God, in His sanctuary, to see His power and glory. Jeremiah 29:13-14 also says, “If you seek me, you will find me. Yes, if you ask for me with all your heart, I will let you find me. This I promise, the LORD.” Here, God promises that He wants to be found, but it takes the first step to come from us.  

What does “with all my heart” mean? The word ‘heart’ here comes from the Hebrew “lebab” which means, among other things, “mind, will, strength.” To seek God with all our heart means to seek Him with all our mind, all our will, and all our strength. This is not about a quick half-hearted prayer, but a time when we really focus our attention fully on God. The more time I take for God in my daily life, the more my heart and my thoughts come to rest. And the more space I create in my heart and thoughts for God, the more space I create for new knowledge and revelation from Him.