What Do You Long For?

‘He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end.’ 

As we start this study – you may be wondering why it matters that we have a longing for eternity. But can you explain that deep yearning you still have stirring somewhere deep within? Even as you walk out your salvation, even as you have set Jesus as Lord in your life, there is a longing for something deeper, wider, greater.   

So, what to do? Let me take you on a journey… 

I’ve recently taken up swimming. Not in any amazing way – I’m no Olympian – but I’ve been working on creating healthier rhythms and slowly building up the number of lengths I can complete. After I got out of the pool today – I looked down at my hands and noticed that my nails were perfectly clean. Immaculate. Not a trace of dirt underneath. And I’d looked at them only yesterday, thinking that sometimes the dirt of life can get so stuck that I can see it, but it feels like nothing I can do shifts it.  

And perhaps there’s a deeper truth represented here. As we long for eternity – things that fly against it, mark us somehow – whether it’s our own sin, the fallen world around us or the sickness and wars that we see everywhere. Those things are like marks on us, smudges of dirt, ingrained deep so that we cannot seem to shake them off.

We know we were made for more than this, that our salvation brought us ultimate freedom from these marks, but we can’t quite reach it in the present moment. We are longing for the fullness of our salvation, the completion of our transformation to make us blemish free and a true likeness of Jesus. 

‘Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end.‘

(Ecclesiastes 3:11 NLT) 

Questions:

1. As you read today’s verses, where do you sense a longing in your own life for something greater?  
2. In what areas of your life do you feel ‘marked’ by the fallen world around you, or aware that this life is a ‘poor reflection’ of what is to come? 
3. Where are you looking to see more of God’s presence and perfection in your daily life?