Craving Personified

How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord Almighty! My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God (Psalm 84:1-2)

According to Lysa Terkeurst in her book "Made to Crave", this verse illustrates the idea that God did, in fact, make us to crave, he just never intended for the object of our craving to be food - or other things that people tend to struggle with. She also points out that Satan tries to lure us away from God by using cravings.

Before I get to the personal reflections at the end of chapter 1, I want to share the bible verse that I just wrote on my refrigerator door. It is a verse that Terkeurst referred to throughout her journey, and it really helped her. So now I would like to share it with you.

Everything is permissible -- but not everything is beneficial. (1 Corinthians 10:23)

It's a good reminder to think about what benefit might come from giving in to a craving - whether it be for food, or some other vice. And I know that for me, it is also important that I feel like everything is permissible - because what do you want more than the one thing you aren't allowed to have?

I suppose if I had to personify my cravings they would be the cliche devil on my shoulder, telling me, "You know you want it - look how good this food is, go ahead, eat it. You are already fat, what difference will one bite make?" And I suppose if I had to ask this little devil a question, it might be, simply, "Why do you want me to be fat? Why do you want me to fail?"  And in sticking with the devil idea, I imagine his response would be, "Because anything that keeps you from being who God created you to be is a victory for me."

It makes perfect sense to me that God wants us to crave Him with every fiber of our being. What are you more passionate about than something you crave in that way?  Lysa says in the book that we crave more of whatever we eat. Using that same theory, if we seek after the right things, won't we want to feast on them?

Breaking away from the food idea for a moment in an effort to find a craving that is healthy, I can say that one other thing that I craved deeply after my family moved away was to be close to them. That craving ultimately led us to become members of the church my parents had attended before they moved. I felt that the members of the church readily embraced me as family because of my parents involvement there - so it was a way to satisfy that craving. In "giving in" to that particular craving, I believe I took a step towards becoming the woman God wanted me to be. That is probably a good way for me to discern between healthy and unhealthy cravings - looking at the ultimate benefit that will come from "giving in".

I know that this is only chapter one of this book, and of my journey. Just the introduction. I'm looking forward to digging in more, to seeing what God wants me to learn, to drawing closer to Him, and learning how to crave Him rather than food.

So for today, I will pray that God will help me to crave Him in that Psalm 84 way. And I will be sure to look at the verse on my refrigerator every time I open it - and I will ask myself - what will the ultimate benefit be?

Thank you for sharing this time with me, and may God bless you today!