On longings and desires...

"And find out what pleases the Lord" -Ephesians 5:10

"...but understand what the Lord's will is." -Ephesians 5:17

"... and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through spiritual wisdom and understanding." -Colossians 1:9

"The will must be subjected bit by bit, piecemeal and progressively, to the divine will."-Thomas Kelly

"All my longings lie open before you, O Lord." -Psalm 38:9

"For He satisfies the longing soul,and fills the hungry soul with goodness." -Psalm 107:9


Our soul craves for God... our soul screams for more of him. "I spread out my hands to you, my soul thirts for you like parched land."(Psalm 143:6) We all long, desire, and want to seek God with all we are.
(A side note though: Have you ever wanted God more than you already WANT him? You want Him and long for Him so badly, but still, there's something inside of you that not only WANTS more of HIM, but wants TO WANT more than you want right now of Him...)

Anyways, God is our sole desire. Our soul SCREAMS, longs, desires, and thirsts for Him... he is THE satisfaction to our desireS. Note that I say desire with an "S" at the end; Christianity isn't the end of all our other desires.

We still struggle with fleshly desires every day, and must crucify our SINFUL desires daily. We should constantly be checking the motives in our desires. But what about those desires that aren't sinful?

Have you ever wanted something so badly that it hurts? And you pray and pray about it, but you seem to never get the "green light" from God to go after it? Does that mean you should just neglect that desire within you becuase God doesn't seem to be "granting" you what you want... so maybe it isn't a godly desire anyway...?

It really seems like what we want is something God wants also, but we feel as if there is no way we could or should go after it right now. But at some point in life, maybe much later, it could be something we do/be/have (whatever applies to that desire). So we wonder, WHY is that desire placed in us right now if we can't have it right now?! Why would God give us that desire to us so ...early...? Maybe to us, the desire seems ... premature?

I hope this isn't too confusing. Just so many thoughts are going through me head right now. Let me give just one example:

What's the average age to get married? In the United States, it's 27.7 (haha, .7?) years old for men, and 25.6 years old for women. Well, I had my first crush in kindergarten! I was 5... that means I had the 'desire'/emotion in me to 'like' guys 20 years before the average age to even get married...

This is just ONE example of what I'm trying to say about what we think are premature desires. So, I don't know about you, but I've always kind of wondered WHY if we aren't likely to get married until we're in our 20's, do we begin to "like" guys at such a young age compared to the realistical age of marriage...? And how do we go about handling those 'feelings' right now?

Well, I'll tell you from experience and observation, a lot of girls today tend to fall on two way opposite ends of the spectrum... we girls can either go crazy on a guy and don't give one thought to waiting on the LORD to give the green light to the relationship and end up breaking our hearts, or...on the totally opposite end of the spectrum, we can get so caught up in "waiting" that we begin to think that "waiting" and not "dating" right now means that we just shouldn't like guys right now... And if we do, we shove those feelings down and pretend they're not there because we don't want to act on those feelings for the time being. We sometimes abandon and neglect the desires within us. (I'm not saying every girl is like this, I'm just stating an observation I've noticed or even experienced)

I used to think the first girl I described was worse. But I'm beginning to see differently.Really... how RUDE of us to just abandon and neglect the desires that GOD put in us right now, becuase, to be quite honest, maybe we're too lazy to take the time to figure out how to handle them right now.

"The Christ-life doesn't divorce us from our humanity. It makes us more human." -Sue Monk Kidd

I really believe I'm beginning to see why God placed the desire in us to "date" and like guys at such a young age compared to the realistical age of marriage.

I think God did that so that while we are young, and desiring to date, but still far from marriage, we will find that fulfillment in Him and Him ONLY. It's vital that we learn what it means to become the bride of CHRIST before we could ever even THINK about becoming the bride of someone else.

If we were completely honest with each other, I think we could both admit that sometimes we would be more excited to see a message in our inbox from the guy we like, than to have prayer time with God.

WHY IS THAT?!?!!! I want to make sure I'm HEAD OVER HEELS in love with God before I promise to love some one else. Because how else would I even really know how to go about loving someone else when I'm not desiring and loving and going to the one is who IS love FIRST?!

I feel as though sometimes, in these, what we think of to be premature(?) desires, we look for satisfaction in the wrong places. Actually, in any desires we can do this. Think back to Genesis 3... "When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it." And we all know what happens from there. Jason Miller, in a journey class a few months ago pointed out an interesting point in this passage though. Aren't all these things that she saw in the fruit... good for food, pleasing to the eye, and desirable for gaining wisdom... things we find in Christ first? "To whom, then, will you compare God? What image will you compare him to?"-Isaiah 40:18

My point with all of this is... well, just because a desire in you that you feel is godly, and god-breathed, isn't being "granted" or you aren't getting the green light to pursue it yet, doesn't mean you should let it go for the time being. Don't be discouraged by that. Infact, I challenge you to be ENCOURAGED by that...

God knows when the right time is. He cares so much for you that He wants to hold it off until just the right time. He may be preparing you for the moment when you he does give you the "green light" to pursue it. (Ex: learning to become the bride of Christ, before being anyone else's bride) And you know what else? I find that when I want something so bad, but can't do anything about it, is when I feel most near to God. When I am completely dependent on Him, is when I am humbled and reminded again of just who I am in Him.

Place all of your desires and longings in his hands. He'll not only take care of them or nurture them or hold them... he will satisfy them. Actually, he won't solely just "satisfy", He'll go beyond satisfaction. He'll fulfill/fill you not just to the top of the cup with satisfaction, but your cup will be overflowing.

"Cast your cares on the Lord and He will sustain you." -Psalm 55:22
"All my longings lie open before you, O Lord." -Psalm 38:9
"In him and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence." -Ephesians 3:12

Pray about everything, he really does care about every longing, want, and desire you have. Be in the Word, and worry about nothing.

Remember he will withold no good thing from you.