The need of the soul<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
by David R. Wills
 
 
 
There are many painful experiences in life, many disappointments, frustrations, and heartaches; they are too numerous and diverse to mention.  Seldom is mentioned, though, the pain of knowing the reality of a deeper place in God, and yet feeling oneself alienated from that place and seemingly unable to attain unto it.  That awareness is what I call the 'need of the soul'.
 
One who feels no physical hunger is presently unaware of any need for food.  Likewise, one who feels no spiritual hunger is unaware of the need to attain a deeper experience in God.  God made the body in such a way as to demand of us, from time to time, to replenish those life-giving substances that sustain the body.  The physical needs of the body, however, pale by comparison with the spiritual need of the soul.  The life-giving substance that sustains the soul of man is nothing else but God.  God made man's spirit to feel its need of God.  A spirit that never feels that need is dead, to be sure.  But living spirits-those that have been quickened (made alive) by the Spirit of God-often feel spiritual hunger, even to the point of that being quite literally a painful sensation.
 
Psalm 65:4 states: "Blessed is the man whom thou choosest, and causest to approach unto thee […]".  How is a person caused to approach unto God?  For, to be caused to approach evidently involves a means of compulsion and not merely an invitation.  God makes you hungry for him, causing you to approach unto him, and that hunger demands of you to seek unto God to satisfy the need of your soul.
 
"Before I was afflicted, I went astray […]" (Psalm 119:67).  Of course, afflicting us with spiritual hunger is not the only means by which God draws us to himself; God has many ways of wooing us.  How, then, might we understand God's purpose in dealing with us in a way that sometimes causes such an intense feeling of pain in the soul?
 
Could it be that God himself yearns so deeply for a more intimate relationship with us, that he allows us to feel in ourselves what he feels towards us?  I mean, does God suffer spiritual hunger pains for deeper intimacy with us?  I believe it is not only possible, but true.  In fact, I'm sure that very few have deeply comprehended the Bible's revelation concerning God's nature, his will and his desires towards us.  We know that man was created for fellowship with God.  We also know that the sacrifice of Jesus Christ was wholly for the purpose of restoring the fellowship between God and man that sin had destroyed.  Yet, how greatly God desires our fellowship, I believe, we have too lightly grasped.
 
I further believe that God allows us to suffer spiritual hunger in order to move us out beyond a place where (God knows) we have become complacent.  In the course of our spiritual growth and development, we tend to 'grow and plateau'.  That is to say, we experience phases in our spiritual growth-not unlike the process of physical growth, wherein we attain greater knowledge and experience, which enables us to enjoy a deeper relationship with God, and each successive 'phase' requires some period of time to mature and become established in us.
 
Just as physical growth is often accompanied by so-called 'growing pains', spiritual growth is oftentimes accompanied by deep, painful longings in the soul towards God.  Similarly, just as physical hunger pains mean that the stomach's capacity is not sufficiently filled, spiritual hunger pains demonstrably prove that there is in our soul a capacity for God that is not sufficiently filled!  Our soul cries out for more of God: that can only mean there is in us a greater capacity for more of God! 
 
Those whose capacity is already filled don't ask for more, because they don't feel a need.  The marvelous promise of God in Matthew 5:6, states: "Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled."
 
Our spiritual hunger for a closer walk with God testifies to us that God has increased our capacity for him, and is intended to draw us into deeper fellowship with him, where the need of our soul-and of God's-will be satisfied.