Only one thing is essential for us to move forward in this life with God. This one thing is purely and simply a ’longing’ for this life with all our heart and soul and mind and strength...
Oh (sic), friend, so you long for this kind of life? Do you? Do you have a burning craving for utter heart purity?... Oh, to have a flaming vision of a God-saturated life! Oh, to experience the searching, persuading, compelling reality of the Hound of Heaven?... Like the deer longing for flowing streams so our soul longs for God, for the living God.
Is this what you long for? Is this what I long for? If so, the invitation is open wide to one and all to come home, home to where we belong, home to that for which we were created. “Come to me,” says the living Christ. “Come to Me all you who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart and you will find rest for your souls, for My yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Mt 11:28-30 NKJV).
From Longing for God: Seven Paths of Christian Devotion, by Richard J. Foster and Gayle D. Beebe (Downers Grove: IVP Books, 2009), 283-284.
A review of this book will posted soon at www.chinainst.org.