For He satisfies the longing soul, And fills the hungry soul with goodness. Psalm 107:9

He has filled the hungry with good thing, and the rich He has sent away epmty. Luke 1:53

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst… for THEY WILL BE satisfied (Mat. 5:6), They are the ones that get filled up. You can’t fill something that is already full. God knows that He can only satisfy those who are hungry. He can only fill those who are empty and in need. And, Oh, how he longs to fill us up. So he runs away and hides to produce hunger and longing inside of us, SO THAT he can come and satisfy (Song of Solomon). If we were always satisied and full, he wouldn’t be able to come pour himself into us. If we weren’t thirsty and in need, we would become stagnant and complacent and wouldn’t chase after Him. We have got to stop filling ourselves with things that only fill us for a time, that only dampen our thirst. They keep us from the ultimate satisfaction of the the glory of God filling our hungry souls after the season of letting ourselves feel the ache of desire. Legitimate pleasures… they can fill us for a time. But God is the one who can truly satisfy. But as in a dream I had last night, the Lord keeps speaking “You are not hungry enough. You are not desperate enough.” As if to say “I want to fill you, but you’re not hungry enough yet; so I’m drawing this desire, this desperation out of you.”

Take food for an example. Your stomach may growl, but all you have to do is go drink a glass of something and focus your attention on something else, and you can go on. But if you go long enough, you will begin to starve. And when you get that hungry, it will cause you to do things differently. You will do what ever it takes to find something to fill the hunger. You will be driven to some extreme measures.

The sick are those who need a doctor, not those who are well (Mat. 9:12). So you make us lovesick so that you, the doctor, can come heal us with your touch, your presence. It’s good news that you came for the sick, because we are sick. You resist the proud but you embrace the humble. You draw near to those who draw near to you (James 4:8) Blessed are the poor in spirit (Mat. 5:3), those who recognize their need, because you don’t turn away from them (Ps. 51:17). If you never drew us to the wildnerness, we couldn’t come up leaning on you (SOS 8:5). And you want to be near to us, you want us to cling to you. You’re like the shepherd that breaks the lamb’s legs and carries it on his neck to form a bond that can’t be broken… so that that lamb won’t run away when it is well. You break us so that we will cling to you.

So no longer will I run away from the pain of hunger, lovesickness. I will embrace the wilderness. Because I know you will fill me. I know I’m going to come up leaning- closer to you and more in love and more satisfied than I ever have been (but at the same time more hungry and in need of you). You wound me with your love, you ruin me with your touch again and again. And oh the joy of being lovesick…