Longings. Coming face-to-face with the fact that there are empty places in our lives that haven't been filled. Yearnings. Wanting more than we have; more love, more enjoyment, more passion, more hope, more rest. Cravings. The hope of finding something that will satisfy the rumbling we feel in the stomach of our soul.

To wake up to the truth that you were made for more than this world has to offer will change your life. When you are honest about the places in your soul that ache to be filled, you are right where God can tenderly reach in and touch the deepest parts of your heart.

Saint Augustine says that our souls will never find their rest until they find it in God. He is the treasure. Our longings will point the way to him every single time. Each longing in my life that I have discovered, or that has discovered me, drives me to confront a truth that I might not have confronted otherwise: I need God. I am thirsty for God. Desperately thirsty. In every area of my life. I was made by Him and for Him, and apart from Him, I will not be satisified. My desires for things to fill me and make me whole bear witness to the One who will fill me ultimately. My longing to be known reveals to me, the existence of a greater knowing by the One who created me. My hunger for heaven sings to me the first verse of a song that I have known since the foundation of the world, reminding me where I am from and where I am going.

It is easy to miss this. Listen closely to your longings. I have veered off into sin and missed the treasure on many trips. Sin is trying to meet legitimate needs in an illegitimate way. Every sin that we choose to commit is tied to some very real need in our lives. We try to meet that need or longing with something or someone that cannot meet it. We say to God, "I don't trust you to take care of this situation, or fill this longing, so I will do it myself." We are fooled that the treasure is really the food, or the affair, not the living God.

- Nicole Johnson - "Fresh-Brewed Life"
From The Answer Copyright & copy; 2003 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.