Welcome to another episode of Struggling Well, or also called What in the World? we're glad you're here.
Your new title for our podcast.
You know, it changes all the time because I think it makes it interesting to me, probably to nobody else, but last week Jimmy talked a lot about this is the day that the Lord has made. I will rejoice and be glad and being thankful for every day. And another place that I think that we often miss misunderstand and miss, meaning we're not really looking for it, is the whole concept of grace. We want God to be gracious to us. We don't give much grace to one another, but we desperately want God to be gracious to us. And that means that we want him to roll the way we think he should roll. But I read a quote recently. First, let me back up and tell you that a dear friend of mine gave me a book that I think you can get on Amazon. It's called The Blue Book. It's a devotional guide for every season of your life. And the gentleman who wrote it is a man named Jim Branch. I want to give him full credit. He put this together and it's an unusual devotional in that every that there's a week's worth of readings in one chapter. So, it's really good. I may have mentioned this before. I think I have, but it's worth getting. Anyway, the place in the devotional where I am is talking about longing. And I wanted to read to you a quote by Awtoer that Jim Branch has in this devotional because it really hit me. and one line in particular, the prayer is this. Oh God, I have tasted your goodness and it has both satisfied me and made me thirsty for more. I am painfully conscience conscious of my need for further grace. I am ashamed of my lack of desire. Oh God, the triune God, I want to want you. I long to be filled with longing. I thirst to be made more thirsty still. And the line that came out to me is I am ashamed of my lack of desire. And I've been rolling that around in my mind and my heart for the last few days that I don't even I expect grace, but I don't know if I enjoy the outpouring of God's daily grace and mercy and if I even long for grace. And so that's just been on my mind. What comes to you, Jimmy?
Yeah, I think that whole idea of longings are is interesting. I'm not sure I would agree with you, Suzi. I'm not sure that we long for God more deeply than we long for happiness in life, for example.
to long for his grace in ways that are ever deepening. I think that you know my journey and my story in my Christianity that for years it was this legalistic thing that did certain things to because I thought I had to do them
to get God's approval as opposed to for example Bible study or Bible reading that it was a checklist thing that I would tick off because that would mean my day would go better because I had done those things as opposed to going to God's word I long to know him better. I long to deepen my walk with him. Hopefully has changed. But one of the things that was true in all that was grace.
Yeah.
I thought grace was what you needed to be saved. You for by grace have you been saved? Not it's not of yourself. You haven't done anything to earn it.
Right.
But then somehow like the Galatian believers that Paul wrote to, I thought I could continue to I didn't need the spirit of God. I didn't need God's grace in everyday life. And so my expanded need for grace has grown as my life has gone on. Yeah, the in this same devotional Jim Branch talks about that our lives, this is a quote from him, our lives are one continuous movement in the direction of our deepest longings. Another line that just jumped out at me, the problem is that we tend to stop too soon, too near the surface. And that got me to thinking about what is it that I'm longing for? And what is it that we long for our children, for our spouse, for in our business, in our home? home. What do we long for? Do we stop too short? Because what we're longing for is really something that is here on this earth and we spend an inordinate amount of time trying to get it, trying to find solutions to get it to happen. and so we long for something here and I wonder if my longing is not just too short, but it's shallow.
Yeah, I think that's so true. And again, I go back to the things I long for often times for myself, for us, for our kids, our grandkids, the longing is that life would be free of speed bumps, that life would be free of problems. That life would go the Here's the key to me. Life would go the way I want it to go. And as opposed to going, "No, Lord, I long for what you long, which is to deepen my walk with you, to conform me to be more like your son." And often times, he uses hard, difficult things to bring me into more of a conforming look in my life to who Christ is.
I think there's such a tension between living in this world and being a part of this world. And I was thinking I know this is ridiculous, but I've been thinking about I'm embarrassed to say this, but our bathroom was painted 10 years ago in a color that when I walk in, it makes me want to just vomit. It's just on the wall. It's Oh, it's Yeah. I It's close to that. It's not the color of that, but it's just
so I find myself thinking about this and wondering how can I, you know, there's no windows in that particular bathroom. How can we find the right color? And so there's this I know it's silly, but there's this longing to get that right so that I can enjoy it. Well, there's nothing wrong with that. I mean, it's okay to have a decent color on the walls, but it is when things capture a portion of your heart to the degree that long longing for that thing or that healing or that acquiring of something or that person coming into your life or whatever when that longing supersedes the longing to know Christ then something's not right.
Yeah. And I think really what that is not necessarily always but I to me that's an indicator of I don't stop long enough to go deeper.
Right.
So that's what you said. You know it's a shallowess. It's not a you know obviously your husband doesn't share the same thing about the bathroom color.
Although I will take suggestions and color samples,
but it's not a wrong desire.
It's that you stop there and it's a shallow desire.
Yeah.
And I think that's what Toer's getting at in that quote you read from him in that book. And what we would say is, can I go deeper in what my heart really longs for? Cuz I know you and I know that there are things deeper in your heart that you long for besides the color on the walls in our bathroom.
Yes. I also need a color for the bedroom. So, see how much deeper I'm going. But seriously,
it's good to hear you laughing, by the way.
It's good to laugh.
But those longings and they're good. Some of them are so good. What we want for our kids and the agony that we feel as our kids are suffering and they're disappointed and all those feelings that come up, you know, what we want for our spouse and for our health and all those longings. But like you said, Jimmy, can we go can we allow ourselves to be still long enough to allow our hearts to long for the eternal for what matters
for the things that only God can provide? And so and you just said it there. I think it's key. Can I be still long enough? Can I sit with it long enough till allow myself to even go to what it is I really long for from God. I don't think most of us are willing to do that. So we live busy lives. We cover up those longings with activity and don't acknowledge that there's something deeper in our heart that our heart desires.
Yeah, this is a subject that I think will be in my heart and in my head for a while and I hope that as you all are listening that something is stirred. You know, we really enjoy doing these podcasts. We love that Tim is with us every time we record these. Jimmy and I have conversations like this all the time, which you're like, you're probably think, "Boy, those two lead a very exciting life." But we love talking and we love pondering things in the world and in the scriptures, etc. But would you be willing to just stop long enough to say, "Lord, show me what my heart is really longing for, and let me pursue that as much as I pursue my physical health, my the way I look, the way my kids look, what they want, etc. Can I stop long enough to pursue you and let you meet the longings of my heart?"
It's a great question, and it's the one we'd leave you with this week. Have a great week. Thanks for joining us. To learn more about the Struggling Well podcast, visit tandemspirituality. com.