Episode #247 Why You Long for More—And How God Satisfies – Unforced Rhythms of Grace

Hey friend, have you ever wrestled with this feeling that there just has to be more to life or to faith than what you've already experienced? Even if things are going really amazingly well, that there has to be something deeper or broader or richer than what you've experienced so far, this longing to go deeper.

Sometimes longings like that can frustrate us, especially if we don't know how to experience more of the fullness of life that we believe God intended for us.

But that longing is actually a really good thing.

We're talking about that today in the context of spiritual disciplines, which is not something I thought would ever come out of my mouth.

For a long time, I saw disciplines as another form of rule following and as I was breaking away from the dry, dead, religious form of Christianity that I grew up in, I didn't want to carry on any of those type of stifling, achiever, rule following practices. But, as I'm rereading Richard Foster's book, Celebration of Discipline, I'm being reminded that the disciplines are actually to bring us delight, and to bring us into a life giving day to day relationship with God.

I'm going to read a little bit where he's talking about this longing that we all have to go deeper. And he references Psalm 42:7, which talks about how “deep calls to deep.” We are deep, eternal beings that are created for the depth and breadth and wonder and awe of God.

And so he offers that perhaps “somewhere in the subterranean chambers of your life, you have heard the call to deeper, fuller living.” My guess is that you're listening to this episode today because that's true of you. Richard goes on to say, “You have become weary of frothy experiences and shallow teaching. Every now and then you have caught glimpses, hints of something more than you have known. Inwardly, you've longed to launch out into the deep.”

That longing is innate in each and every one of us because we are created for life with God. Eternal life that doesn't just begin someday when we get to heaven, but that we get to experience right now, moment by moment, day by day, while we're living here on earth, and it continues for eternity.

But there are some common lies that a lot of us have believed when it comes to this kind of depth and being able to experience it.

And one of those is that spiritual disciplines are some form of dull drudgery aimed at exterminating joy or laughter or enjoyment from life. And that is just not the case. Richard offers to us that joy is the keynote of the disciplines—which was not how I experienced them in the way that I grew up—but that is how I'm experiencing them now. And as I reflect over these decades in the faith, I can see that I just misunderstood. Even areas of joy that I've experienced in the past were deepened and widened, because of areas of discipline in my life.

And Foster offers us this perspective that the spiritual disciplines are actually a way of us receiving more of the freedom that God offers to us, which is part of why I'm doing this series, because that is true. And that is not how I first learned about what the spiritual disciplines were like, or how they got to show up in our lives as believers.
So one of the lies is that spiritual disciplines work against joy and the other one is that spiritual disciplines are only for spiritual giants or contemplatives who have hours and hours by themselves for meditation and for prayer and it's kind of set aside for those people of advanced level faith.

But the good news is not only does God use the disciplines to bring us joy, He makes them attainable and accessible and life giving for the ordinary life of an everyday believer. The primary requirement for going deeper in our relationships with God and experiencing more of the fullness of life that God offers us is a longing for God. Again, I'll reference Psalm 42:1-2 in the New Living Translation.

“As the deer longs for streams of water, so I long for you, O God. I thirst for God, the living God. When can I go and stand before him?” (Psalm 42:1-2 NLT)

That longing is in each one of us because we are made for God.

And so even if you feel like you don't long for God enough, know that that desire is innate within you because you were created for life with Him.

Maybe the desire has been buried or you've tried to fulfill it with other things.

Maybe you've gotten frustrated because you've tried to walk out spiritual disciplines or aspects of faith, and they were dry and stifling and dull and oppressive instead of life giving, and you haven't known what to do about it.
Maybe you simply don't know that that longing is there for you.

But even as we're closing this episode, there's something in you that sparks with possibility. The deep in you calls to the deep in God, wanting to know and experience more of Him.

Not only has God given you this longing He is the one who will satisfy it.

And so here is a question that you can take to talk with Him more about it:

God, what's a deep longing of my heart that you long to satisfy? And what else do you want to tell me about that?

Have a good talk.

And if you've been encouraged by this content, please share it with a friend and help them grow in their conversational relationship with God too!

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