Jen and I had a long distance relationship before we were married.  The first time I flew up to see her she moved out of her bedroom and let me sleep there.  I carried my suitcase down to her room to get settled, and as soon as I opened the door I smelled her perfume.   It was in the air, on the pillows, on and sheets.  All around me was the smell of the woman I loved.  It was like Zach-nip.  I got tingly and light- headed – my pulse raced.  That was the smell of my beloved.  Wonderful.  Exciting.  Intoxicating.  I just sat down on the edge of the bed and breathed her in.

But I hadn’t come all that way just to smell the aroma of where she used to be.  I came to woo a bride.  I came to spend time in her presence.  How foolish would it have been for me to stay in her room, satisfied with her fragrance when she was right upstairs waiting for me to wrap her in my arms?

So I got up and went to her.

Why be satisfied with her perfume when I could have her presence?

I later learned that Jen knew exactly what she was doing.  That perfume was not designed to satisfy me, it was designed to make me want more of her.

It is the same with worship.

How many times do we come to church, worship Jesus, and sense His presence with us, breathe in the heady, intoxicating sense of His nearness, then get in our cars to go to lunch and have conversations like, “Boy you could really sense the Lord there today, couldn’t you?”  Then we go about our lives, waiting until the next weekend when we will get another whiff of His fragrance.

If all we do in worship is enjoy the sense of His presence, we have missed the point.  The “perfume” of God is not meant to satisfy us, it is meant to make us hungry for more of Him – to draw us closer to Him.

We do not worship God so that we can enjoy the fragrance of His passing.  If we love Him, we cannot be satisfied with His perfume.  We must have His presence.

That was the difference between the crowds and the woman with the issue of blood in Luke 8.  She was medically incurable.  She could not afford to be satisfied with seeing Jesus.  She was not interested in sensing the signs of his passing, she had to have the touch of God.  She pushed through the crowd to get more than a look, more than a whiff , more than a moment’s brush with glory.  She pushed through to grasp God Himself.

A worshipper is a person who will not be satisfied with anything less than God Himself.

As you go to the Lord today in prayer, remember this, worship is not meant to satisfy you, it is meant to stir your hunger for God’s presence.  Worship sets your heart and life on a pursuit of the will and presence of God.   It is the calling of your life – to pursue the Father who is pursuing you.  If you allow Him, God will put a hunger in you that can only be satisfied by grasping God Himself.