Passion, Worship, and the Thirsty Deer

God I miss you.

These words roll off in prayer before I think them, then I stop for a moment as I realize what I just said. How can I miss God when he is always with me? But from the overflow of the heart I seem to have spoken a phrase beyond my own understanding, so I write.
Though God is always with me I do not always feel his presence, as all Christians know, whether we like it or not, we do not always as if God is there at all. This is usually a fault of our own but occasionally it is simply a test from God himself to take us beyond where we thought we could go.

I feel the presence of God with me now to an extent, he is the only reason I can maintain the pace that I do and not burn out.
What I miss is the overflow of joy that comes from not only his presence but his love constantly pouring out in my life that does not allow me to get comfortable, the outpouring of love that not only makes me joyful but passionate. Not just passionate in the things that matter most, but passionate with every thing that I do, because he called me to this place, and every word I speak and every move I make should be for the glory of him, within his perfect will and plan.

That passion is what I miss. The passion that only comes from God,
The passion that makes me want to SHOUT and DANCE and SING.

Call me foolish, that I should be content with the style of worship in quiet reverence and stillness that is an attitude of the heart and is not reflected externally.

I cannot hold in what is within my heart without it showing externally, I cannot keep myself still, to be reverent is not only the attitude of the heart but for me to worship in spirit and truth I CANNOT KEEP SILENT.

As I seek God I see glimpses of what he is doing, whether directly in my life or in the world around me I see it. It brings me joy; it makes me hunger for more. To live in an attitude of worship, of constant prayer is my greatest desire, and as I see God work it makes me want to pursue more and more.

This pursuit is directly reflected in actions, once again the overflow of the heart…. Therefore it is most directly reflected in my worship, as my life should be an act of worship, but it isn’t always (workin on it) so we’ll just talk about the specific worship in Church or a Campus Bible Study.

(Disclaimer: I must thank Dr. Younce for this paragraph, because after I wrote this in Christian Studies building lobby he speaks on this in class, so this stuff is from my notes.)
God desires us to worship him; he seeks us to worship him. Worship draws you closer to God, and as you draw closer to God you begin to look more like him, therefore being reflected in your life from the meditations of your heart to where you decide to eat lunch to how you respond to hardship. It is all changed because of worship.

So as I worship I find myself drawing closer to God and him in turn to me. This means my heart, my soul, is more like his, and thus I have joy, I have peace, I have a PASSION for LIFE that is BEYOND understanding, I have passion to spread his love, just as Isaiah 26:8 says: “LORD we show our trust in you by obeying your laws, our hearts desire is to glorify your name.”

Hearts desire. When he has our hearts within his love our will looks like his, I know I’m repeating myself a lot but this affects so much of our lives I could write forever and never reach the end of how much worship means to us every moment. I’ll just leave the interpretation of this to you and the Holy Spirit and stop saying the same thing over and over….

Perhaps we should all be missing God, and we should all be so hungry for his love and for the fulfilled life he brings that it is not only a desire for more but it is a palpable emotion of actually missing our Father.

But then again maybe I’m wrong. Seek God and decide for yourself. ☺

Psalm 42:1
-Israel