Contemplation: Seven Longings of the Human Heart - Longing #2: Longing for Fascination

Today I'm continuing with sharing my brief descriptions of the individual longings referring to the "Seven Longings of the Human Heart," by Mick Bickle & Deborah Heibert's book.

If you would like a copy of the book, you can find it at ihopkc,  Amazon, or Christianbooks.com. (I'm not getting any commission mentioning this book or sharing links.)

  

Longing #2:

Longing for fascination

God has given us the innate longing to gaze at His beauty and be enthralled with Him. If we open ourselves to delve deeper into an infinite God, we will find that we would never "get bored" by what and whom we were created for. Other man-made efforts in this world (i.e., entertainment by the media: music, movies, games; work, and other limited things leave an unsatiated hole with only a temporal and cheapened satisfaction.

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Does it seem strange to you that God cared about us being "fascinated"?  It did to me when I first read this chapter. I believe that the wonderful and beautiful creative avenues by our own hands are imitations of a creative God. We were created in His image and likeness, but it took me a "second" to realize part of God's intention was that we have pleasure and fascination in our relationship with/to/in Him.

Some areas that I have gone through (and/or witnessed others struggle in areas that hinder the fulfillment of this longing) are:

1) Denying the fact that we were made in His image and likeness (i.e. a characteristic of creativity and enjoying it.) 

 
2) Denying that God put that fascination component in us which holds a beautiful and pleasurable aspect to our relationship with Him.  (Why else would the heavenly creatures always be in worship without hesitation day and night? God is fascinating! )

3) If we only take the elements of how he made us (i.e. creativity itself in a self-focused society) and make that a focus of worship instead of Him (worth-ship -- comparing the worth our attention), then the focus shifts from the infinite and endless fascinating One to the fleeting and temporal production that moves on to the next fascinating task/project/product/event.

Something to think about:

1. Do you think differently about God when you consider that He created you with a longing for fascination?

2. And do you want to know how God can fulfill that fascination? 

You should try asking Him some time.

Thank you Jesus for making the way that we can have this kind of deep and intimate connection with God.