Longing for Home

 

 

We are good for about two weeks on holidays, then get homesick, yearning for our own space, family, and friends. Time is short today with returning rental car, shuttle to airport, doing the security thing, layover in another city for a few hours, and repeat in reverse at home city . . . then a few groceries, unpack and finally in our own bed.

I wonder if God has YEARNINGS and found a couple verses that affirm He does, and a couple more that affirm my yearning for Him. Those first. Isaiah 26:9–11 says, “My soul yearns for you in the night; my spirit within me earnestly seeks you. For when your judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness. If favor is shown to the wicked, he does not learn righteousness; in the land of uprightness he deals corruptly and does not see the majesty of the Lord. O Lord, your hand is lifted up, but they do not see it. Let them see your zeal for your people, and be ashamed. Let the fire for your adversaries consume them.”

This one I understand, one reason I like reading Isaiah. He expresses the desire of God for righteousness in the world and I yearn for the same thing. We visited with family on Saturday and one of them works with an advocacy organization concerning environmental issues. She does not have a Christian viewpoint yet her yearning for things to be right in this world was easy to relate to and discuss. How long oh Lord will it be that You return and bring righteousness to our planet?

Jeremiah 31:20 speaks of God’s yearning for His people. He asks, “Is Ephraim my dear son? Is he my darling child? For as often as I speak against him, I do remember him still. Therefore my heart yearns for him; I will surely have mercy on him, declares the Lord.”

This is another favorite prophet. While I also long for change in those who oppose God, I also long for God’s people to hunger for the same thing. It is easy for those of us who know Him and have faith in Him to be content with the goodness He shows to us and neglect our own need for a deeper righteousness, a richer and an increased zeal for ourselves to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Redeemer and to share in His yearning for us to be more in line with His heart.

The NT reflects both perspectives; God’s zeal for righteousness and God’s desire for us to continue to grow, to be more like Jesus. Two passages speak of these yearnings, both in God’s heart and in the hearts of His servants, Paul and James.

Philippians 1:7–11. “It is right for me to feel this way about you all, because I hold you in my heart, for you are all partakers with me of grace, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. For God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus. And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.”

This man reflects the heart of God as expressed by the OT prophets and by the Lord Jesus Christ in His life, death, and resurrection for our redemption. So does James . . .

James 4:4–10. “You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, ‘He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us’? But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, ‘God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.’ Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.

James expresses God’s yearning that His people abandon their contentment with the status quo and have a deeper desire for the things that He desires. He wants our humility and has a sincere yearning for us to think like He does and long for the same things as He does.

GAZE INTO HIS GLORY. Sometimes when I am at home I express the longing to ‘go home’ — a desire to be with Jesus, knowing that He is with me wherever I am, yet wanting that perfection that is not in this place, even though we yearn for it. Someday, someday Jesus will come and make it a reality. In the meantime, I yearn for it.