What do you long for? What do you yearn for? What do you cry out for? What are the deepest desires of your heart, the things you most wish for in life?

There is so much in the book of Psalm talking about “praying our emotions” to God. Instead of stuffing them down or venting them, the Psalms teach us about bringing our emotions fully to God first and foremost and allowing Him to reset our life’s compass and transform us.

Many of our deepest longings have to do with love: to have someone beautiful see you as beautiful. To have someone hold you and to know that you are safe and loved.

To have someone see the worst things about you and still love you. Some of our other longings and desires might be:

• Longing to be perfect: to be free of your flaws and your mistakes, to be freed from guilt and shame and to know that you are okay.
• Longing to be significant, to be recognized as valuable, to accomplish a goal, to win the championship, to have the adoration of the masses.
• Longing for freedom a life with no responsibility – to win the lottery, to be rich, or just to have the weekend, a vacation, a night out with the girls or the guys, or simply time without the kids.
• Longing for peace, a relief from the stress – to find something that will ease the stress of life and bring lasting peace.
• Longing for abundant life – to feel truly alive – to jump out of a plane, to dive off a cliff, to feel the rush, to enjoy great food, great sex, and great beauty.

There’s a good chance that many of your prayers are driven by these deep longings, as you plead and cry out with God for love, or for a better job, or for him to take away the pain or the guilt. Maybe you find yourself praying these things often.

Maybe you’ve even come across this verse:

“Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart…” Psalm 37:4.

and you thought that if you could “just” delight yourself in God then you could get those things you are longing for.

Today, right now- I am talking about PRAYING those longings and desires to God. I want you to look at the possibility that underneath most if not all of your longings and desires, what you are truly longing for is God. That if you bring those longings and desires to God and spend time in his presence, meditating on who He is, then you will find that all that your heart is longing for.

The intimacy, the ecstasy, the freedom, the perfection, the significance, the abundant life, the peace, the perfect love – all of it is found in God. And more than that, nothing in this world can truly and fully satisfy the longings and desires of our heart.

We may get glimpses and tastes here and there, but nothing satisfies our desires like knowing God. Learning the discipline of “face to face” raw anguish and dialog with the Father takes a sincere willingness to shut down the noise, shut out the chatter and simply let the outflow of longing to be spent in a purposed “setting aside” of time and its constraints, until we are purged of doubt, anguish and disappointed outcomes.

The longing will melt into “be-longing”, safely….. to something- no! WAIT! “SOMEONE” sweet and untouched from false expectations and approval. The place where deep and satisfying rest is found. The place where the things and longings of an earthly existence grow strangely dim…? ( yes THAT hymn)…. in the light, that soft and brilliant and cleansing light of His Glory. His radiant goodness and Grace.

I love this quote so very much from St. Augustine of Hippo. (I think you will too!).

“Thou hast made us for thyself O Lord, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in thee.”

 

~ Mary Lindow ^©

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” THE MESSENGER ” ~ Mary Lindow
www.marylindow.com
Global Prayer Rooms

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Mary Lindow has a passion for encouraging others in all generations and careers or vocations to live and express excellence through personal integrity, healthy accountability, and wise management of talents and skills. She is a sought after keynote inspirational and humorous speaker and teacher throughout the United States internationally in Ministers conferences, International Spiritual leaders Conferences, and in National and International training seminars for various organizations.

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