May 9

“If your heart longs, He has answered.  All along He has known your longing and He has known just when you would call.  He has been waiting for you to voice your longing.”  Eugenia Price, S.P.S., 59

This is, indeed, reassuring.  Eugenia is paraphrasing Isaiah 65:24 here.  We know that everything comes from God--even our desire to know Him.  This is why we must examine our longings carefully to make sure they aren’t influenced by Self since the big ME often confuses us into thinking God wants us to have this thing or that.  What I’m beginning to understand is that all our longings are from God, but all are not meant to be fulfilled in the way we think they should.  The longings that are influenced by Self can be used by God as sandpaper so that we’ll become less and less rough in our personalities.  We become sweeter and more beautiful to the Lord as we submit these longings to His care.  If they are born of Him they will be fulfilled in due time.  If they are born of our Selves, they will teach us our need to submit ourselves to God for all our needs so that the disquiet within us can be healed.  So the next time I realize I have a longing for something I will remind myself to pray like this:  Lord, if this is from You may I receive it with humbleness and if it is not from you may the desire leave me so that I am not tempted to strike out on my own.  I will pray for protection from the Tempter and for a way out of the temptation.  In both cases I will have glorified God as the pioneer and perfecter of my faith.

“...let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith...” Hebrews 12:1b, 2a