Healthy Longing

God has been teaching me a very valuable lesson this past year. There’s a good side and a bad side, a healthy side and an unhealthy side, to most everything in life. Longing can be our worst enemy when we long for the wrong things in life. When we yearn for more money, a better job, more stuff, or think more friends will make us happy, it’s an unhealthy longing that will lead to constant feelings of discontent.

But if our hearts ache with a deep longing to know Jesus better, that’s a healthy longing that will deepen our faith and help us find contentment, no matter what is happening around us.

This past year has been a long season of longing and waiting for me. And to be honest, waiting is something I don’t always do very well. I am a “get-it-done” kind of gal, and I live most of my life in race mode.

I’m also a huge dreamer, which is a good thing in many ways, but sometimes us dreamers get lost in the dreaming and forget to be content in the moment. We get impatient in the waiting that is so often the case before dreams come to fruition. We can get trapped in the longing for that elusive “someday” when our dreams come true.

This past year there have been amazing, wonderful, dreams-come-true kind of things on the horizon. The illusive prize has been so close I could almost touch it, but it has remained just outside my reach. It feels like I have taken one step forward and two steps back. It’s been a season where I have felt the sting of longing.

I’ve prayed time and time again that God would move a little quicker; but as I reflect on it, I can honestly say it’s been one of the best seasons of my spiritual life. I have learned to trust God at a deeper and deeper level. I have learned to let go of things I can’t control. I have learned to enjoy all that I already have. I have learned what’s important and what really doesn’t matter.

And the greatest lesson I have learned is to move from an unhealthy longing to that healthy longing for more and more of Him.

And because He loves me so much, God is continuing to allow me to wait as He draws my heart  closer and closer to Him. He is nurturing my insatiable desire to have more and more of His Word planted deep in my heart. He is cultivating my longing to step into more and more of who and what He has called me to be. He is making my heart more and more tender and receptive to how I can be the light of Jesus to a hurting world.

When living feels hard, when things get taken away one at a time, when you think things couldn’t get any worse but then they do, when dreams don’t get fulfilled, when friends let you down, when it feels like all you have left is your faith, that’s when you need to turn your unhealthy longing for a quick fix into a healthy longing for God’s peace. That’s the perfect time to trust and believe that God will meet you with arms open wide, ready to shower you with the peace and hope that is found in Him alone.

We have decisions to make every single day: Am I going to keeping longing and waiting for contentment to come “someday,” or am I going to live my best life possible by surrendering and living my life with abandon for Christ today? Am I going to exchange my worldly longing that destroys my peace for a Godly longing that draws me closer to Him? Am I going to choose to stay stuck in unhealthy longing, or am I going to allow the hard seasons of life to draw me closer to Him?

I pray you will join me in choosing the healthy side of longing. Turn things around and let the greatest desire of your heart be for a deeper relationship with Jesus. Dig deep into His Word. Surrender your life to Him more and more.

Nurture a healthy longing so you can start truly living!

Next month we will be discussing this topic in-depth in our Ambassador Community as we focus on Living vs. Longing. If you aren’t an Ambassador yet, I encourage you, sign up today so you don’t miss out on this great teaching! Join your Sisters in Christ as we dig deep in our faith and encourage and equip one another.

See you in the Ambassador community!

Hugs and love

Jill Miller

A living “Energizer Bunny,” Jill Miller has a zest for life that is contagious! With humor and honesty, she shares her personal struggles and how God showed up in the midst of them. Through her songwriting, speaking and writing, she is simply a friend telling her story, hoping it will touch your heart, encourage you in your struggles, and inspire you to keep reaching for your full potential. Her spiritual insights are relatable, insightful, and can be practically applied to your life.

Jill realized a dream when she was named one of the new Voices of Women of Faith, and she loves serving the organization by being a mentor for the Ambassador program. Jill is also their Director of Development and serves as a worship leader and speaker as well.

Jill is a singer/songwriter and Nashville recording artist. She recently released her 6th CD entitled “Twelve, the Freedom Soundtrack.” 

Jill is also a certified speaker, coach and teacher with the John Maxwell Team and has written the first ever theme song for the John Maxwell Team. She recently released an online course entitled “Writing the Song of Your Life,” which is a 7-week journey to discovering your purpose and stepping into your unique calling, the song God has given you to sing!