BUT A POOR REFLECTION: Deepest longing

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Deepest longing

Contentment is a difficult virtue. Why? Because there is nothing on earth that can satisfy our deepest longing. We long to see God. The leaves of life are rustling with the rumor that we will and we won't be satisfied until we do.

Credit where credit is due: beautiful quote © Max Lucado When God Whispers Your Name - stunning picture made by © Frea - Max, Frea, You & Me and Hydrangea leaves - made by Awesome © God.

2 comments:

Carolanne said...: Does this mean that if we are content, then we are missing something? I usually love Max Lucado's writings but this quote has me thinking.

Paul said in Philippians, "In everything I have learned to be content." Paul was content whether he was in prison, hungry, rich or poor... in all things.

This quote by Max Lucado suggests we can't be content until we have seen God.

This is about as far as my befuddled brain can think and sort out thoughts but I'm just wondering. :)

I still like the quote though. :); 4/12/2007 3:42 am
Paul said...: Yes, you are right. But also read what Paul wrote in the first chapter of this letter to the Philippians,

Yes, and I will continue to rejoice, for I know that through your prayers and the help given by the Spirit of Jesus Christ, what has happened to me will turn out for my deliverance. I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know! I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far; but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body. Convinced of this, I know that I will remain, and I will continue with all of you for your progress and joy in the faith, so that through my being with you again your joy in Christ Jesus will overflow on account of me.
Philippians 1:18-26

Of course this Max Lucado quote is taken out of context - maybe I will add some text to it later. I just recognized his deep longing for completeness, restoration and purity and I think that we all have this longing as long as we are living in this broken world. We are already new creations, but we are still yearning for God like Job, David and Isaiah...

I know that my Redeemer lives,
and that in the end he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet inmy flesh I will see God; I myself will see him with my own eyes— I, and not another. Job 25-27

How my heart yearns within me!
My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the LORD; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God. Psalm 84:2

My soul yearns for you in the night; in the morning my spirit longs for you. When your judgments come upon the earth, the people of the world learn righteousness. Isaiah 26:9

So if you long to be with God and if your are looking for complete contentment, you are in good company! ;-)

But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed. 1 Peter 4:13; 4/12/2007 8:45 am

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God loves us

Have you ever wondered why God gives so much? We could exist on far less. He could have left the world flat and grey; we wouldn’t have known the difference. But he didn’t. He splashed orange in the sunrise and cast the sky in blue. And if you love to see geese as they gather, chances are you’ll see that too. Did he have to make the squirrel’s tail furry? Was he obliged to make the birds sing? And the funny way that chickens scurry or the majesty of thunder when it rings? Why give a flower fragrance? Why give food its taste? Could it be he loves to see that look upon your face?

Max Lucado - He Chose the Nails

Sadhu Sundar Singh

I do not condemn theologians wholesale, but it is unfortunately the fashion in Western thinking to doubt and deny everything. I protest this tendency. I never advise anyone to consult theologians, because all too often they have completely lost all sense of spiritual reality. They can explain Greek words and all that, but they spend too much time among their books and not enough time with the Master in prayer. It is not that I oppose all education, but education without life is certainly dangerous. You must stop examining spiritual truths like dry bones! You must break open the bones and take in the life-giving marrow.

Oswald Chambers

In the Bible clouds are always associated with God. Clouds are the sorrows, sufferings, or providential circumstances, within or without our personal lives, which actually seem to contradict the sovereignty of God. Yet it is through these very clouds that the Spirit of God is teaching us how to walk by faith. If there were never any clouds in our lives, we would have no faith. "The clouds are the dust of His feet" (Nahum 1:3). They are a sign that God is there. What a revelation it is to know that sorrow, bereavement, and suffering are actually the clouds that come along with God! God cannot come near us without clouds— He does not come in clear-shining brightness. (Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest, July 29th)