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A BOUT WITH LONGING
“If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world.” ― C.S. Lewis
“I still haven’t found what I’m looking for.” -U2
1. I am RESTLESS if I look only here for what I long for.
> I Can Get SMARTER
16 I said to myself, “Look, I am wiser than any of the kings who ruled in Jerusalem before me. I have greater wisdom and knowledge than any of them.” 17 So I set out to learn everything from wisdom to madness and folly. But I learned firsthand that pursuing all this is like chasing the wind. 18 The greater my wisdom, the greater my grief. Ecclesiastes 1:16-18 (NLT)
> I Can BUILD BIG Things…
4 I also tried to find meaning by building huge homes for myself and by planting beautiful vineyards. 5 I made gardens and parks, filling them with all kinds of fruit trees. 6 I built reservoirs to collect the water to irrigate my many flourishing groves. Ecclesiastes 2:4-6 (NLT)
> I Can Have A BIG ENTOURAGE and A BIG BUSINESS…
7 I bought slaves, both men and women, and others were born into my household. I also owned large herds and flocks, more than any of the kings who had lived in Jerusalem before me. Ecclesiastes 2:6 (NLT)
> I Can Have MONEY and All The PLEASURE It Can BUY…
8 I collected great sums of silver and gold, the treasure of many kings and provinces. I hired wonderful singers, both men and women, and had many beautiful concubines. I had everything a man could desire! Ecclesiastes 2:8 (NLT)
> ”You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.” < Saint Augustine
...But I Need God First and Most To Be REST-FULL
1Remember your Creator in the days of your youth... 9So I became greater than all who had lived in Jerusalem before me, and my wisdom never failed me. 10 Anything I wanted, I would take. I denied myself no pleasure. I even found great pleasure in hard work, a reward for all my labors. 11 But as I looked at everything I had worked so hard to accomplish, it was all so meaningless—like chasing the wind. There was nothing really worthwhile anywhere...13 Now all has been heard, here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments for this is the duty of all mankind. Ecclesiastes 12:1,9-11 (NIV)
2. When I Want HIM MOST, I Get EVERYTHING ELSE
1 You have searched me, Lord and you know me. 2 You know when I sit and when I rise: you perceive my thoughts from afar....23 Search me, God, and know my heart test me and know my anxious thoughts. 24 See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.
Psalm 139:1-2, 23-24 (NIV)]
1God's promise of entering his rest still stands, so we ought to tremble with fear that some of you might fail to experience it. 2 this good news—that God has prepared this rest—has been announced to us just as it was to them. But it did them no good because they didn’t share the faith of those who listened to God. 3 only we who believe can enter his rest. Hebrews 4:1-2(NLT)
“No eye has seen, no ear has heard and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him.” 1 Corinthians 2:9 (NLT)
“The Christian says, 'Creatures are not born with desires unless satisfaction for those desires exists. A baby feels hunger: well, there is such a thing as food. A duckling wants to swim: well, there is such a thing as water. Men feel sexual desire: well, there is such a thing as sex. If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world. If none of my earthly pleasures satisfy it, that does not prove that the universe is a fraud. Probably earthly pleasures were never meant to satisfy it, but only to arouse it, to suggest the real thing. If that is so, I must take care, on the one hand, never to despise, or to be unthankful for, these earthly blessings, and on the other, never to mistake them for the something else of which they are only a kind of copy, or echo, or mirage. I must keep alive in myself the desire for my true country, which I shall not find till after death; I must never let it get snowed under or turned aside; I must make it the main object of life to press on to that country and to help others to do the same. ― C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
THE BOTTOM LINE- My LONGING is filled when the ONE I LONG for fills it.