https://youtu.be/pmOpS290S5I

Martine

• The way that I handle the longing is that I transmute into creativity, contribution, deeper connection with what is on the horizontal plane (people, places, things).
• The cross is trying to communicate to us that we are to live with the longing in the middle of the cross. Through our walk with Christ we aim to live in that sweet middle place, between the vertical and horizontal plane.
• God calls us to be in community as we abide in the longing, as relationships can be portals into the ultimate Union with Him (where time and space slips away).
• Be in the Word and let yourself become like it. It’s about embodying the Word. Through that emodiment, that longing for Jesus, dissapates, and you begin to see Jesus all around you. It’s like Heaven literally is here on earth. He’s in the people that come into my life. He’s in the feedback I get. The longing becomes satisfied with that dialogue with the Logos.
• Let go of the idea that we’re separated from Heaven. God has given us life, to bring more of Jesus onto Earth.
• AtTEND and pay atTENSION to the tension of not being in full Union with God, yet. We tend to lean into using the phone, distraction, temptation because we cannot handle that deep longing. Ask yourself how tension feel in your body? Where is it stretching you to the point of distraction? Are you even aware of it? Sometimes God checks and correct you to realign when you drift away. If you are to tend to someone, there’s an invitation to sit with the tension between us. Tension is simply polarities or differences, and there will always be some intangible or tangible tension there that will fluctuate from apparent to not so apparent. This tension we can also have with God. The longing dissipates when we’re able to atTEND to God when we go about the moments of the day. Walk with the underlying longing, knowing it will NEVER be fully satisfied, but it dissipates when we acknowledge the experience of longing and how that feels. When we ignore the longing, it grows, and we begin to be self-destructive and project this onto others and the world as well.
• The C (Confession) part in ACTS-prayer is very helpful to lift up your longing to God and just be honest.
  • Adoration (of God) and who He is in His character.
  • Confession such as I think […], I feel […], this is what I have on my heart […]
  • Thanksgiving for God and the longings He has already satisfied.
  • Supplication to God, daring to ask Him to satisfy your longings, other longings, and the longings of Humanity.

Katharina

• The void in the longing is particularly strong when I am removing myself from God and not making the time to sit at His feet, to be in the Word, where I am not in contribution, where I am not taking a step towards Him. Faith is not passive, it’s active. The longing is strong when I am not in participation, when I prioritize or idolize or make other things more important.
• As women, it’s part of our nature to long. Relationships have a different order for us, relationships come first. We have a particularly deep longing, that can feel like a void. We try to seek it from our relationships, when Jesus is meant to fill it with our participation.
• It’s part of human nature to want to be close to God at all times. God has made us that way. There’s intelligence behind what we’re experiencing. There’s something so beautiful in that. Without that, we wouldn’t be hungry for Him in our lives.

https://youtu.be/V03BYcLcsjQ

Martine