I know it’s been a while friends and I’m sorry. I’ve had the following verses on my mind for a long time and felt I needed to share some thoughts and reflections. First, a question: What would truly yearning and longing for God and His presence look like?

As a deer pants for flowing streams,
 so pants my soul for you, O God.
My soul thirsts for God,
 for the living God.
When shall I come and appear before God?
- Psalm 42:1–2

I was in the car with my girlfriend, Amy, this past Sunday when I posed the above question and it was her answer that made me glad I hadn’t written this when I first wanted to over two weeks ago. In a nutshell, “I think we’re all longing for God; I mean, I think we are all trying to fill the void with various things,” she answered as we drove down roads that have come to characterize my growing up. A small lightbulb alit in that moment.

longing for God, in short

I was going to come to y’all today and tell you how it took me a relationship to understand what longing for anything, let alone longing for God, looked like. But that was always God’s point. That’s why our relationship to Christ is likened to a marriage. The marriage relationship is the most intimate relationship that Mediterranean (and just about all) cultures would be able to readily identify with. This is just the subtle brilliance of our Father.

longing for God: asking the right question

Longing for God is something we all face, whether we know it or not. You know, the hunger that can’t be sated, the thirst that cannot be quenched, the sense of fulfillment that can’t stay filled, that is our longing for God. We are all made to enjoy the marriage relationship with Christ, but so few of us actually pursue our innermost longing. Instead, what serves to set us apart is that some wise few become the only ones to recognize the longing hard at work inside and choose to do anything about it. The rest of us just continue languishing, rotting away, eating ourselves from the inside.

If God is Life, what does the chasing of our desires tell you about your heart? Have you been seeking after that life? Have you noticed recently what you now might identify as the longing for God in your heart growing ever louder recently? Every moment of every day, your heart is crying out for the Everlasting Father who gives abundantly. Only He can satisfy that insatiable desire; only God was made to fulfill the yearning of our souls. Are you looking to Him to be your Sustainer, your Satisfaction? I know I haven’t been.