Have you ever craved something? I mean really craved it? Have you ever craved chocolate, a fudge Sunday, a well seasoned steak, maybe some sweet and tangy BBQ ribs, or how about a certain latte from Star Bucks? Were you willing to do anything to get it? I mean really willing to go to whatever lengths it took to satisfy that need? And in the back of your mind you knew that there wasn’t going to be anything else to take the place of what you really wanted?

Or even better have you ever been desperate? I mean so Desperate that nothing else consumed your thoughts. Have you ever been desperate for money to solve your finical problems that you started selling stuff you owned or you borrowed the money promising to pay it back? How about love? Have you been so desperate for love that you were willing to do stuff that you shouldn’t do because all you wanted to do was feel the embrace of another human being? Or maybe it was even the desire of a sexual need.

We all have experienced cravings and desperation at some point in our lives. To be totally open with you I have had a Craving so bad that I was willing to do anything to satisfy them. I have even been so desperate to be loved by someone that I was willing to forgo common sense to get it. In fact I remember that this one time I had met a woman and had gone out with her a couple of time. I wasn’t a Christian at the time and I was at a place in my life where I just needed to be wanted and loved by someone. I needed someone to hold me, embrace me and who was willing to spend time with me because I was lonely and miserable. After I had gone out on a couple of dates with this woman she told me that she was really stressed out because she didn’t know how she was going to pay for her bills the next month. Wow, my need to be near someone was so bad that I instantly went and took out a loan for $750.00 dollars at 29% interest to help this woman out. I didn’t care and I wasn’t willing to see that she was a user of men because I was craving and desperate for the love on anyone in my life at that time. I know it was stupid and I paid for it, the woman stop seeing me shortly after I gave her the money.

I have not blogged in a while because God has had me on a journey for the last couple of months. I have been seeking Him for some answers and direction in my life and the life of my family. I really have been desperate to hear from God and have been really seeking His Blessing for my circumstances that I find myself in at this time in my life. Recently I have been listing to a band called Deluge. They have a live album that is incredible. One of the songs on the album is called “Open Up The Sky.” I had never heard it before. As I was listening to the song I heard the chorus for the first time and I thought is was cool. In fact over the next week I listen to that song everyday. But something kept needling me every time I got to the chorus. It goes like this:

Chorus:

OPEN UP THE SKY
FALL DOWN LIKE RAIN
WE DON’T WANT BLESSINGS
WE WANT YOU
OPEN UP THE SKY
FALL DOWN LIKE FIRE
WE DON’T WANT ANYTHING BUT YOU

I kept on hearing the part that says “We don’t want blessing we want you.”

The song kept looping over and over in my head like a Sunday NASCAR race and each day I kept seeking God to bless my family and to pour out his blessing on me.  Each day my mind would keep playing this song over and over again. It came to the point that I was craving and I was desperate for His blessing in my family and my life. See my wife and I love to minister and help people. I am a Pastor with no place to pastor. I have really been seeking God to open doors where I can love on the people He wants me to Sheppard. My wife and I both want to be used by God to fulfill His will in the earth even though the time is short.

But I couldn’t get away from that song and so I started to think about its meaning. I was thinking, “Ok, open up the, fall down like rain,” yeah that is cool. I really want you to do that in my life God. Then, “We don’t want blessings, we want you.”

Wait a minute!!! We don’t want blessings we want you. Hey now, I want your blessings God! I need your blessing in my life right now God. If you don’t bless me then I am up a creek with out a paddle. I mean I have bills to pay. I am only getting a few hours a week at work right now. I feel like I am spinning my wheels by not being able to minister to anybody right know. I am desperate for you. In fact at one point I was even angry at those who wrote the song. I was like,” I can’t believe these guys in the band are being so churchy by not need God to do anything for them. I know they have needs just like we all do. They don’t want blessing they just want…….HIM.,”

Wow, that is when God hit me up side the head with a spiritual proverbial bat. You see, I am such a brainy-acke that I miss what God is trying to tell me sometimes. All along it was right in front of me. I have been craving and so desperate for the blessing of God that I had separated Him and his blessings. In my mind I viewed God sitting on his throne. Beside him was a pile of blessing and he was dispensing them as people needed them. But in truth, it is impossible to separate God and the blessing of God. That is like trying to separate the sun for it heat. The sun stops being the sun if there is no heat or like craving peanut butter with out the peanuts. It can be done but what you will be eating is a substitute for the real thing.  You can not separate God from His blessings. His very nature is blessings. In reality if God were to show up in your living room his very essence would cause all those things he touched while in your house to be holy and blessed. God very own voice can not be audible with out causing blessing. If he were to say to you that it is a good morning we would be overwhelmed with the goodness of his proclamation of a good morning and think it an unbelievable morning. God in his very natural form is so indescribable that if we were to encounter Him as he truly is we would understand that by his very presence blessings occur out of shear obedience of who he is!

So that is why the scriptures say, “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” (Matt. 6:33 KJV)

In my desperation and craving I sought the wrong thing. I need Gods in all that He is. I want to be in His presence, and by His very being, all of the other things in my life will be straighten out and blessed.

So what are you desperate or craving? If you want the desperation and cravings to be fulfilled, without a poor substitute then just remember to sing, “

OPEN UP THE SKY
FALL DOWN LIKE RAIN
WE DON’T WANT BLESSINGS
WE WANT YOU
OPEN UP THE SKY
FALL DOWN LIKE FIRE
WE DON’T WANT ANYTHING BUT YOU!

Filed under: Life Lessons Tagged: BBq, Blessing, Body image, chocolate, Christianity, Craving, desperate, God, love, Philosophy, Rain, Religion Spirituality, Sunday