What Do You Yearn For?

In the deepest place of your heart, are you aware of what you yearn for? More importantly, are you consciously aware of the things you look to in order to satisfy your thirst?

“What a man desires is unfailing love” - Proverbs 19:22

The Miriam Webster Online Dictionary defines yearning as a tender or urgent longing.

Some say that at our most basic level, we are all driven by two basic yearnings. People of every age, nationality, language and race hunger to be:

• Fully loved
• Fully known

Others have described our two most profound longings as security (to be fully loved) and significance (that my life would make a worthwhile contribution).

And sometimes these two cravings conflict with one another. In our desire to be deeply loved and embraced, we may fear making ourselves fully known. If others really knew everything about us, they’d probably distance themselves from us and even reject us. So we hide behind a mask of like-ability. 

IDOL WORSHIP?

God is the only One who possesses what it takes to truly know us inside and out while, at the same time, fully love us and count us as precious in His sight. Unfortunately, relatively few of us experience ourselves as fully known and fully loved by God.

For My people have committed two evils: they have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, to hew for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water.  - Jeremiah 2:13 NASB

Without realizing it, most people on the planet find themselves duped into seeking to satisfy their thirst via broken cisterns that leak like a sieve.

As children, most of us looked to dad and mom to satisfy these yearnings. Later we looked to our peers. Problem is that the love and interaction from dad, mom, and our peers was imperfect at best. To complicate things, most of us we were wounded and hurt in these formative years, some worse than others. Satisfying the yearning to be fully loved and known by looking to people is like dreaming an impossible dream (more like a nightmare!)

Only God the Father as revealed in the person of Jesus Christ has the miraculous capacity to both fully know us inside and out … and at the same time … to love us fully and completely. 

LISTENING EXERCISE

This exercise can be used in a time alone with God. If you lead a small group, you may want to use this assignment with the people you are studying with. Or you can do this exercise together with your spouse or a friend.

Dedicate 30 minutes in a tranquil place where you won’t be disturbed. After quieting down, ask God the below questions. Praying through the Listening to God Guidelines before answering the questions will be helpful.

This exercise won’t really help you unless you’re honest with yourself and with God. Write down what comes to you. As you jot things down it’s like priming the pump and God often will bring additional communication to you.

1. God, what is my deepest underling yearning as I live my day-to-day life? (You may have more than one. Just write down what comes to you.) ________________________________________________________
2. Am I hiding behind a mask and not sharing who I truly am - or am I pretending things are going better than they actually are? _______________________________________________
3. What or who am I looking to in an attempt to satisfy my deepest yearning(s)? ________________________________________________________
4. If you uncover a faulty strategy you’re unwittingly following to quench your longing(s) or are disappointed because what you’re doing isn’t working, tell God all about it. If you feel you’ve been falling short of what God wants for you, confess it to Him. If you want to change, ask God for His special help. ________________________________________________________
5. Ask Jesus, what do You have to communicate with me about the satisfaction of this yearning? (Jesus may send thoughts into your mind, a picture, remind you of a phrase from a song, fragments of scripture, etc.). ________________________________________________________
6. Share what took place as you used this exercise by leaving a comment or writing L2G.Forum@gmail.com. This will help me know I am writing about things that are useful to you. If you’re not at a place where you want what you wrote shared with others, say so, and I’ll keep it private.