If you look within, you’ll find you crave UNDERSTANDING, PURPOSE, SIGNIFICANCE, BELONGING, LOVE, and SECURITY. These needs drive you. They are your core longings. God created you with these needs. From the beginning they’ve been there. God made you with these needs because He wants you to attach to Him. He can/wants to/will meet these needs in your life.

How do you get there? How is your life changed by His love? That’s a lot to tackle in this format so let’s take a baby step. Look at what you’re doing NOW to get these needs met. Look at your denial. Look at your control as attempts to get these core longings met. Look at your PAST and reflect on where these needs were met in healthy ways and look at your PAST to see where these needs where neglected. Looking is painful. I know. Some days I don’t want to look. Look and you will find life on the other side of the pain.

Recently I studied Psalm 23 as a guide to the way my core longings are met in Jesus. Try this in your meditation:

• vs 1 : Belonging
• vs 2 : Understanding
• vs 3 : Purpose
• vs 4 : Security
• vs 5 : Significance
• vs 6 : Love

To your journey..

Thoughts?

I’m in class this week and I’m thinking about something my professors have been saying, “All behavior has meaning.”

Our behaviors are driven by core longings. We are created by God and for God. This need for God expresses itself in our need for belonging, purpose, security, understanding, significance, and safety. As a child you received positive and negative messages about these longings. When these longings don’t get fulfilled we all do one or more of three things:

1. Denial. We disassociate from reality and check out mentally or create our own reality.
2. Manipulate others or our environment to get the need met.
3. Fill the need of our core longings with something false.

Apply this to last time you were hurt by someone and you’ll understand their behavior at a deeper level. Better yet, think about what your own heart is hungry for. Thinking about that has been changing my life. Over the next few posts we’ll be looking at how Psalm 23 shows how our core longings are met.