CONNECTING POINT: What Do You Long For?

We are created by God with natural longings. Some of these longings are honorable and pleasant within the safe boundaries taught in the Bible.

Other longings are harmful, even destructive to ourselves or others as warned against in the Bible. Author and speaker, Ben Bennett states “Failure to address legitimate longings is often behind our unhealthy thoughts and destructive behaviors.” Ben founded the Resolution Movement- a global movement helping people overcome hurts and struggles to thrive in life, check out this initiative at resolutionmovement.org.

Ben Bennett and Josh McDowell have teamed up together to address the challenges that large portions of our culture face daily in a series called Free to Thrive. Over 75% of Americans report everyday occurrences of anger, fear, fatigue, and lack of sleep. 41% of adults in the U.S. report symptoms of anxiety and depression. Strikingly, 50% of teens and children are dealing with various mental illnesses. As the church we cannot bury our heads in the sand on this issue, historically Christians have struggled with addressing this matter creating an unhealthy stigma regarding mental illness. If we truly believe there is hope in Jesus, we must acknowledge the various needs in people’s lives.

First, Free to Thrive, helps us define “unwanted behavior” as any thought, belief, or action you want to stop but can’t. This concept is found in Romans 7, where the Apostle Paul says, “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate to do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree the law is good,” (Romans 7:15-16). There has been great debate about this specific scripture and Paul’s intention, however, in the original Greek the verb tense is present, meaning an ongoing struggle with sin. This same position is established in 1 John 1:8, “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.” The point is, if or when we struggle with a particular sin our saving grace is that Christ is our redeemer. Romans 8:1 tell us “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” We must learn to examine our lives and ask what is behind unhealthy thoughts or behaviors.

Second, we must learn to look for instances of rejection or inadequacy when we give into sinful thoughts, beliefs, or actions. The truth is we all want to receive love, acceptance, and affirmation, either from God or others. Certainly, we must practice guarding our hearts as Proverbs 4:23 teaches fully understanding that our hearts can be deceitful, even sinful. Bennett says, “Identifying our unmet longings and how they play out in the present takes time. So be patient with yourself.” It is when we examine and assess these longings that are destructive, we then can begin the healing process.

God wants us to thrive spiritually, we have sufficient hope and grace through Jesus Christ. Trying to appease God in our own strength and our own righteousness is futile. I greatly appreciate McDowell’s encouragement, “It’s time to take off the mask and come out of hiding. But we must be willing to expose and surrender our sickness to Jesus.” Perfect Christians don’t exist, we may practice sinning less, but no one is spotless in the eyes of God on this side of eternity. God’s love and grace are our only answer, receive it.