Psalm 42:1-2 (TPT) I long to drink of you, O God,
to drink deeply from the streams of pleasure
flowing from your presence.
My longings overwhelm me for more of you!
2 My soul thirsts, pants,
and longs for the living God.
I want to come and see the face of God.
1 Corinthians 9:24–27 (NLT) Don’t you realize that in a race everyone runs, but only one person gets the prize? So run to win! All athletes are disciplined in their training. They do it to win a prize that will fade away, but we do it for an eternal prize. So I run with purpose in every step. I am not just shadowboxing. I discipline my body like an athlete, training it to do what it should. Otherwise, I fear that after preaching to others I myself might be disqualified.
Philippians 3:7–8 (NIV) But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ.
What do these verses have in common?
They all speak of a deep desire, a craving. It is not the take it or leave kind of desire. Nope, this is the drug-addict-craving-a-hit kind of desire. This is the young lover pining for her beloved, kind of desire. This is the gold medal or bust Olympian kind of pursuit.
“Our journey with Christ is an invitation to desire. Yet, when measuring spiritual health, we usually ask questions about duty and doctrine: Am I doing the right things? Am I willing to sign this statement of faith?”
Matthew Woodley
If we are to not settle for less than, then there needs to be a desire burning within us – the desire to want to know God in greater intimacy. Discipline and duty are necessary. But if they are the primary motivators for greater, then what we will encounter is drudgery. The desire for intimacy is the motivation that moves us. It pulls us out of the rest stops and gets us back on the road towards greater.
Saint Augustine of Hippo in The Confessions of St. Augustine gives us a taste of the desire for greater intimacy…
Late have I loved you, beauty so old and so new: late have I loved you. … You were fragrant, and I drew in my breath and now pant after you. I tasted you, and I feel but hunger and thirst for you. You touched me, and I am set on fire to attain the peace which is yours.
Matthew 14:22–29 (NIV) Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd. After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone, but the boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it. During the fourth watch of the night Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost,” they said, and cried out in fear. But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.” “Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.” “Come,” he said. Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus.
This is one of my favorite stories in the Bible. I must admit that I give Peter a bad rap because in the middle of the miracle, he gets scared, but let’s look at this from a little different perspective for a moment.
The 12 disciples are in the boat going over to the other side of the lake as Jesus had commanded them to. It’s business as usual. They had just been with Him and now they were going to meet Him on the other side. Halfway through the journey, the storm kicks up and they are having a tough go of it trying to get to where Jesus told them to be. In the middle of all of this, things get a little stranger when they see a ghost walking on the water. It turns out that it is Jesus taking a casual stroll in the early morning hours through storm-tossed waters. He calls out to them and tells them not to worry,
“Hey yawl, it’s just little ole me walking on water. Stay calm and carry on.” (You might want to read that with a drawl.)
Here is where I love Peter’s heart. He had just been with Jesus a few hours earlier, but now when he sees Jesus, he does not respond like the rest of the guys in the boat,
“Oh okay, Jesus is over there, cool.”
Instead, Peter pursues Jesus. He is not satisfied to see Jesus from afar, he does what none of the other disciples did, he calls out to Jesus,
“Jesus, I want to come closer to you. Tell me to come, please! Please? I want to come near to You!”
And Jesus invites him to come nearer.
If I were the disciples, I would think that Peter was being a little overdramatic.
“Brown-noser!”
“Come on, we just saw Jesus a few hours ago and now He is right over there.”
“Relax, we will be near Him again soon enough.”
But Peter was not satisfied with that – he wanted more. So, he calls out to Jesus,
“Can I come to You?”
Jesus invites him to come. Peter ignores the rolling of the eyes and the snide comments from the other disciples. He braves the storm and steps out of the boat into a roiling lake and begins his trek toward Jesus.
We all know what happens next – he falters. He gets scared halfway there and Jesus has to rescue him. The guys in the boat are laughing and he knows he is not going to hear the end of this. In the middle of a disagreement they will be having on the road someday, one of them will start play-acting,
“Jesus, please help little ole me, I’m drowning! Glug, glug.”
But whatever you do, don’t feel bad for Peter. Think about it – he may have faltered and had to be rescued, but he still ended up closer to Jesus than any of the others, and he is the only person, other than Jesus, to have walked on water! If that is failure, then I want more! His desire to be with Jesus motivated him to want more and allowed him a greater revelation of Jesus.
Later in his life he gives us a glimpse of that same kind of desire and passion when he encourages…
1 Peter 2:2 (NLT) Like newborn babies, you must crave pure spiritual milk so that you will grow into a full experience of salvation. Cry out for this nourishment…
What would you do to have greater intimacy with God? What are you willing to do to draw near to God?
Who and what are you willing to leave behind for it?
And remember, what you and others may consider a failure in the moment, may become one of your greatest moments with God!
Excerpt from Greater: Don't Settle For Good When There Is Greater
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