Longing
I’ve traveled a good bit recently and been away from home and my bride. The reasons I was away was a good bit for business and personal growth. One of my trips was this past week with my college buddies and our annual golf trip. I call it my “goofing off” trip. This was our 34th year of getting together to reconnect and play a lot of golf. These friendships are deep and rewarding. We laugh a lot together. We share in one another’s heart aches as well. I love those guys and they love me. At the close of the week, I was really missing and longing for home. I love my wife and my family. I love my place we’ve called home for the past twenty-seven years. When longing for loved ones or home, there’s no “cure” for it. I think there’s a difference between being “homesick” and “longing”. In longing, there is a pull of sorts that draws me. I think the word “longing” could be interchanged for “hoping” or “wanting”.
The Apostle Paul poured out himself in ministry. He writes the church at Thessalonica and in the chapter I read this morning, I could feel his longing. Check this out…
11 May God our Father and our Lord Jesus bring us to you very soon. 12 And may the Lord make your love for one another and for all people grow and overflow, just as our love for you overflows. 13 May he, as a result, make your hearts strong, blameless, and holy as you stand before God our Father when our Lord Jesus comes again with all his holy people. Amen. (1 Thessalonians 3:11-13 NLT)
What a blessing in his longing to see the church. He laid out some challenges that came from his longing.
He longs for their love for others to grow and overflow.
He longs for their heart to be strong and blameless.
He longs from them to be holy before the Lord.
Paul’s deep love is evident in his writings.
I know people who are longing for heaven.
I know people who are longing for a deep relationship.
I know people who are longing for a normal, peaceful life.
Before I long for anything, I should long for deep friendship with God. He longs for me. He wants me to long for Him. He wants me to lean on Him and lean into Him. My friendship with God is grounded in a deep and abiding faith. I’ve seen what He can do. I’ve experienced Him firsthand in my personal struggles along this journey called life.
Pressing On!
Dwayne