François Botes spoke (and sang) about the longings of the heart at Kristen Tjeneste last week. A very interesting topic.
I’ll list the topics he mentioned here. You’ll have to lookup the verses and wrap your thoughts around it yourself, or you can download his message.
Our hearts long for:
Assurance of being enjoyed by God
John 15:9, Luke 15:20, Songs 1:5
“Enter his gates with thanksgiving” – there’s a time and place for repentance (actually, there’s a lot of time and place for that), but it is not mentioned here.
God knows we change in His presence. Satan knows it. We need to know and not forget it too.
Fascination
Isa 33:17, 1 Cor 2:10-12, John 16:14, Ps 27.
When was the last time you saw a movie twice? Usually, that doesn’t happen very often.
Being beautiful
Ps 90:17, Isa 61:3, 1 Pet 3:4.
This isn’t only about earrings.
Being great
Mat 5:19, 20:26, Hebr 2:7, Rev 3:21
This is a double-edged sword and cuts away false humility. Very much anti-janteloven.
If you really don’t want to be great in the things you do, you should only study half your topics, train half the time, give your kids half the food they need, help your patients only some, fix the cars a bit, write code that will work sometimes…
Intimacy without shame
1 Cor 13:12, John 10:14.
This is a long process where we need to get rid of fear in so many areas. Intimacy shapes identity.
Wholeheartedness and passion
Mark 12:30.
Passivity kills. If you have nothing to die for, do you have anything to live for?
Significance and lasting impact
Heb 6:10, 1 Cor 3:14, Col 3:23, Mat 10:42.
We all have a different mix of this in our hearts, and I imagine these longings overlap each other. For me, the longing for significance is much stronger than the longing for beauty, for example and for now.
Remember that today is not practice: today is the real thing.