My Soul Pants For You: Faith as Affection

If you spend time in the Psalms you are repeatedly struck by the psalmist longing for God. Perhaps the most famous example of this, from Psalm 42:

As the deer pants for streams of water,
so my soul pants for you, my God.

My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
When can I go and meet with God?

Another example from Psalm 63:

You, God, are my God,
earnestly I seek you;
I thirst for you,
my whole being longs for you,
in a dry and parched land
where there is no water.

I confess, I've always had a bit of trouble with these psalms. I can't say I've ever panted or longed after God.

That said, I've increasingly come to appreciate how we need a strong and deep affectional connection to God if our spiritual journey is to be sustainable across the decades.

Faith less as belief and more as affection.

Faith in God can't be merely an intellectual and theological relationship. Faith has to involve your feelings as well as your ideas, your heart as well as your head.