The Longing for God Alone
by Sheila Walsh, from The Longing in Me.
You will seek Me and find Me when you seek Me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the Lord. - Jeremiah 29:13-14
O God, You are my God; I earnestly search for You. My soul thirsts for You; my whole body longs for You in this parched and weary land where there is no water. I have seen You in your sanctuary and gazed upon your power and glory. Your unfailing love is better than life itself; how I praise You! — Psalm 63:1–3.
Whatever your path has looked like up until this point (unless there is a white chalk mark around your body), it’s not too late to change, to rise up and be the woman (person) God has called and created you to be.
You are not defined by the past. You are qualified by the great I Am.
His love for us isn’t based on our perfect performance, but on the perfect love He has for us.
God is for you 100 percent. He loves you and welcomes you just as you are. He will never turn away from you, never be too busy, never stop listening, and never choose to be with someone else rather than you. One of the attributes of our great Father is that He is omnipresent. He is with you right now just as He is with me. But unless you believe that, you’ll never trust Him with your deepest longings. Instead you will try to satisfy your longing outside of who He is and what He provides.
The one who takes another pain pill after the original pain is gone is trying to quiet a pain that will never permanently respond to medication. When one disappointing relationship leads to another and another, yet you keep moving on, perhaps it’s not that you haven’t met Mr. Right yet, but the One you long for is above them all. Every longing that we try to satisfy apart from God will always fall short because, as Augustine of Hippo wrote, “You have made us for Yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in You.”
That almost seems a little sneaky of God. He placed us in a world surrounded by a million and one temptations, knowing that not one of them will ever fully satisfy us apart from Him. It’s either sneaky or the most radically beautiful love story ever told. Just as God in Christ pursued us through the mud and mire, the beatings and the bloody path up to a cross, He calls us now to pursue Him. Not only that: He promises that if we seek Him, we will find Him. So this is not a cruel joke. No, this is a promise written in the Lamb’s blood.
‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. You will seek Me and find Me when you seek Me with all your heart. I will be found by you,’ declares the Lord. — Jeremiah 29:11–14 NIV
That’s a beautiful promise, and I believe it. It’s one thing to believe that something is true; it’s quite another to live, to stay, to remain in its truth.
by Sheila Walsh, from The Longing in Me.
You will seek Me and find Me when you seek Me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the Lord. - Jeremiah 29:13-14
O God, You are my God; I earnestly search for You. My soul thirsts for You; my whole body longs for You in this parched and weary land where there is no water. I have seen You in your sanctuary and gazed upon your power and glory. Your unfailing love is better than life itself; how I praise You! — Psalm 63:1–3.
Whatever your path has looked like up until this point (unless there is a white chalk mark around your body), it’s not too late to change, to rise up and be the woman (person) God has called and created you to be.
You are not defined by the past. You are qualified by the great I Am.
His love for us isn’t based on our perfect performance, but on the perfect love He has for us.
God is for you 100 percent. He loves you and welcomes you just as you are. He will never turn away from you, never be too busy, never stop listening, and never choose to be with someone else rather than you. One of the attributes of our great Father is that He is omnipresent. He is with you right now just as He is with me. But unless you believe that, you’ll never trust Him with your deepest longings. Instead you will try to satisfy your longing outside of who He is and what He provides.
The one who takes another pain pill after the original pain is gone is trying to quiet a pain that will never permanently respond to medication. When one disappointing relationship leads to another and another, yet you keep moving on, perhaps it’s not that you haven’t met Mr. Right yet, but the One you long for is above them all. Every longing that we try to satisfy apart from God will always fall short because, as Augustine of Hippo wrote, “You have made us for Yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in You.”
That almost seems a little sneaky of God. He placed us in a world surrounded by a million and one temptations, knowing that not one of them will ever fully satisfy us apart from Him. It’s either sneaky or the most radically beautiful love story ever told. Just as God in Christ pursued us through the mud and mire, the beatings and the bloody path up to a cross, He calls us now to pursue Him. Not only that: He promises that if we seek Him, we will find Him. So this is not a cruel joke. No, this is a promise written in the Lamb’s blood.
‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. You will seek Me and find Me when you seek Me with all your heart. I will be found by you,’ declares the Lord. — Jeremiah 29:11–14 NIV
That’s a beautiful promise, and I believe it. It’s one thing to believe that something is true; it’s quite another to live, to stay, to remain in its truth.
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