Isaiah 26:8-9 – In the path of your judgments,
O Lord, we wait for you;
your name and your renown
are the soul’s desire.
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.
Definition of YEARN
1: to long persistently, wistfully, or sadly <yearns to make a difference>
2: to feel tenderness or compassion
To long persistently, wistfully, or sadly
Have you ever yearned for something? Think back on that feeling. Maybe you know that feeling really well and have been yearning for something for a long time with no satisfaction. Truthfully, there is only one thing that we can yearn for that will satisfy us and that is the Lord. God is the only one who can fill all of our needs. He can meet our physical, spiritual and mental needs. God is the only yearning that can be truly satisfied.
I yearn to be loved
I don’t know how many times I thought that to myself. I wanted some young man to fix the pains I had inside. I wanted someone to love me and accept me as I was. That for me meant testing that love with every ounce of my being – and then inferring the question, “Do you love me now?”. I was looking for a love that I couldn’t get from other people. I wanted the love only God could give. The kind of peace, inner peace that can only come from God. Only when I started to see myself as God sees me (His beloved one), I began to yearn less for the acceptance of boys and was able to have a true loving relationship with my now husband. Not because of a need to be accepted, but out of true real love for each other and God.
I yearn to be beautiful
Almost every young woman in America (and probably most other countries) has had this yearning at one time or another. My prideful self still struggles with it some days. Being beautiful, like being loved, is presented as the answer to many problems in this world. We might think that the beautiful people have it easier. They are liked more, given more and treated better than those of us of average looks. The world does value beauty, but in the end, I’m not sure most beautiful people would say they are more satisfied with life. Beauty comes from the Lord. When our hearts are changed and sanctified by Him, we become more beautiful as a result. We change, because to know God and not change is nearly impossible. As we get to know Him more we get to know ourselves more too. We see the way He created us uniquely to serve Him and others. It is in our ability to reflect God’s beauty, His love and His compassion that we truly become beautiful. I can’t say that I’m always beautiful in this way, but I think that the Lord has made me more beautiful than I ever thought possible. It is His work in me that has changed who I am and made me be able to look to Him for my satisfaction more readily.
My soul yearns for you in the night, my spirit within me earnestly seeks you
The world wants us to yearn for the things they’re selling us. They want us to yearn for their products, their promises, their services. But God wants us to yearn for Him. In everything we do we should be seeking Him. We should be yearning for Him. We should long for Him with an ache in our heart. Yearning to know Him more, Yearning to be closer to Him, yearning to live more like Him. God is the only thing that will satisfy our yearnings. We need to be seeking Him with all our might.
Lord, I yearn for you, help me to yearn for you more.
What do you yearn for?
God is... 