Longeth... what a word. Longing for something, yearning, pining. All-consuming...
I long for a lot of things. I long for more sleep. I long to have my schooling over with and finished. I long for more time with Wallace and Caleb. I long to sit and read.
Sometimes, that longing feels like it is unbearable. The last couple of weeks of a semester, for example... I long for summer break. Papers are looming over my head and I'm trying to type as fast as my fingers will let me, something that I should have done days before... and I feel like I will perish, feel like I will cease to exist if I can't see summer...
but I don't know, honestly, that I've ever thought of my relationship with God in this way.
Even though it is what I am made for.
Ecclesiastes 3 tells us that God has put eternity in our hearts. I've been thinking a lot more about that verse the last couple of weeks. Having eternity in our hearts means we long for it... long for that home where there will be no more dying, no sadness, no fat people, and no suffering on the treadmill.
At least if we are forced to walk for exercise, it will be on streets of gold..
Seriously, that eternal longing has left a hole in us... a hole that can only be filled by God. I've read so many blogs that talk about that God-shaped hole, I'm not sure who first coined the term, but it is so true.
Except we try to fill it with everything BUT God. I try to fill it with cupcakes and chocolate. I try to fill it with appointments penned into my calendar, to keep me busy. I try to fill it with paperwriting and school. I try to fill it with books on my Kindle...
But, because it is only God shaped, it's like trying to put a square peg into a round hole. It just doesn't cut it.
Even though I'm wanting with everything in me... my soul, my very vitality, my life and breath. My heart, my feelings, will, intellect, thought processes; my flesh...oh, my flesh. That nakedness, stripped down to bare bones, body, carnal, fleshly part...
That's where I get in trouble most.
In Psalm 84, the Psalmist talks about how lovely God's dwelling place is.
That's me, and you, if you've asked Jesus to be yours. We are God's dwelling place. His Holy Spirit, the very Spirit that raised Christ from the dead, dwells in me.
He thinks I'm lovely...
even as I'm trying to fill my flesh with things that just won't satisfy.
He wants me to long, to crave... but He wants me to crave Him. The Living God. The One who is El Shaddai, Almighty, All-Sufficient.
He is enough... if I allow Him to be.
If I can learn to walk in His Spirit, and not in my flesh.
Lord, help me look to You, help me cry out to You, help me long... only for You.
Better is one day with you than a thousand anywhere else... because Your time is eternal.
What a beautiful way to look at this verse. I think of the things I LONG for... I need Jesus to be #1 on that list!
ReplyDeleteI liked your post very much, thank you! :)
ReplyDeleteI love how you wrote this. I related with you in all ways. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteLove your post, and the truth of how we try to fill our hole with anything BUT God. Thanks for sharing your perspective on this week's verse!
ReplyDeleteKris Danko (OBS Blog Hop Team)