How lovely is Your dwelling place, Lord of Hosts. I long and yearn for the courts of the Lord; my heart and flesh cry out for the living God. Psalm 84:1-2
My words…
Praise
The Psalmists who wrote these words longed and yearned to be in the place where You are worshipped. So much so that their hearts and mouths cried out for You. When they woke, their first thought was to be in Your sacred courts, in a place where their hearts would be filled with Your presence. Where the Ark of the Covenant was a stone’s throw away. When they lay down at night, they longed for the morning when they could do it all over again. So much longing. So much yearning. It’s passages such as this that make me feel so very inadequate as Your child, Your disciple, Your “called out.” I don’t wake up thinking, “I can’t wait to go to church on Sunday.”
What is it I yearn for? Really yearn for? I long to dwell in a place where the weak and defenseless are safe and not exploited, where not one single person holds murder in his heart, a place where taking disappears in the place of giving, where disease is absent and wholeness abounds, where the only tears are the result of unrestrained elation, a place where everything my eye beholds is transcendent beauty, and the clamor of contention and malice is silenced.
In other words, I yearn for Heaven. But so do most people I know.
So, here’s the crux of the matter: I need to grow to be a better yearn-er. Can yearning be learned? I hope so. I want to know what it’s like to yearn to be where You are all the time, not just on Sunday mornings. To wake up excited to find where You are working and join in. To exhort fellow followers, to be energized in spirit daily, to seek Your kingdom first where I am. So, Spirit-Teacher, here I am again, a student, sitting at Your feet, ready for another lesson: Yearning 101.
