On Holy Desire


It is I who desires God?  
Or is it God who desires me?

“Hunger for God will not go unanswered, because it is a gift from God.  Our longing is already an answer from our heart as it is stirred by God’s Spirit.  No one who seek God fails to find God, because she or he is already found by God.  In seeking we are found.  In longing we express God’s desire, God’s longing evoking our own.”


The soul speaks:

‘God, you are my lover,
My longing.
My flowing stream.
My sun.
And I am your reflection.’


God answers:
‘It is my nature that makes me love you often,
For I am love itself.
It is my longing that makes me you love you intensely,
For I yearn to be loved from the heart.
It is my eternity that makes me love you long,
For I have no end.’
(Mechthild of Magdeburg)

We may be tempted to feel that the desiring of God is all on our end.  But our desiring originates in God’s desiring of us….

David Benner p 82  Desiring God’s will
IVP Books: Downer Grove Illinois, 2005


1.  Read the above through once.  Wait in silence for five minutes.  Read the above through two more times—then ask God the following: 

2.  Questions:

What does this mean to me today?




How can I—or should I apply this in my life?





Have I always understood this—or have I believed I desired You more than You desired me?  
Why have I believed that?
How has that effected our relationship?









Now write out your prayer reflecting your revelation(s) on the above:




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