Delight and Desire.....

It would appear to me that there is some truth to the statement made by the Greek philosopher Aristotle when he said “It is the nature of desire not to be satisfied”.
Our lives are filled with desire, but rarely are we ever truly satisfied.

The way I see it, there are basically two forms of desire.
Firstly there is a desire that is motivated by our hunger and thirst. But secondly, there is a desire that is motivated by having already tasted or partaken.
The Bible seems to indicate that God wants us to predominantly have the desire of those who have already tasted.
Psalm 34:8 “Taste and see that the Lord is good”

We spend way too much of our time hungry and thirsty.
We wrongly assume that because we are hungry for God we possess some kind of spiritual virtue. But far too much of our hunger is due to a leanness of the soul rather than the hunger of those who have already tasted and now long to taste more.
Hunger has never held a greater virtue than being filled.
Thirst has never held a greater virtue than being quenched.
Would you rather be hungry for God or full of God.?
Would you rather be thirsty for God or satisfied by God.?

Time and time again we read in the Psalms of how King David hungered and thirsted after God. But his hunger and his thirst was that of a man that had already drawn sustenance from the river of life, and was desperate to taste it again.
Psalm 63:1 “O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is; To see thy power and thy glory, as I have seen thee in the sanctuary.”

King David knew what it was to delight in God because he had spent time with him in the sanctuary of His presence. He had learned to delight in his God and he hungered for more.
Psalm 37:4 says…”Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.”
According to David, delight comes first, and our desire should spring out of that delight. We almost always operate in the reverse.

It seems to me that the problem is twofold.
Firstly, we tend to put desire before delight. Desire is a powerful thing, and our passions so easily rule us. We become captivated by our desires, and this would not be such a bad thing if our desires sprung out of a delight that we had already cultivated in God. But we tend to respond to our desires without having first spent time delighting in His presence. Yet it is when we delight ourselves in the Lord, that HE gives us the desires of our heart. Our desires are then filtered by his power and presence.

Secondly, we have a tendency to mistake our desire and hunger for God as a virtue in itself and then we rest in our longings. But what is better, to be hungry or full.? To crave for a meal, or to have eaten a meal.? God wants us to partake in him, delight in Him, and then we cannot but be consumed with a desire for more.
“Ho, every one that is thirsty, come to the waters, and he that has no money; come, buy, and eat; come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend money for that which is not bread? and why do you labour for that which doesn’t satisfy? hearken diligently unto me, and eat that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness.”

We seem prone to wrongly assume that if we only hungered more after God, if we only thirsted more…. then we would be more spiritual, and then we would really know God. But what we need is not a greater desire, what we need is a greater delight.
To know God is to enjoy him.
To know God is to revel in him.
To know God is to delight in him.
For many years I had always seen the great commandment “Thou shalt LOVE the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength” as a command to DO in greater measure. But the command is not about doing in greater measure.... it is about ENJOYING in greater measure. !!
I was fooled into thinking that with a greater desire I would enjoy God more, but the truth is that in enjoying God more I will greatly desire him.