Longing for Jesus

I took a picture just like this one at the very end of 2018. I vividly remember the song the band was playing, my best friends I was standing next to, the feeling I had of Jesus being so close it was nearly tangible. When I walked into Passion City Church last night I was reminded of this fond memory. Instantly, I wanted so deeply to go back to that time in my life. A time when everything felt much simpler. Friends, relationships, and just life in general was seemingly easier, and I had a longing to return. However, as I was so focused on what was, I forgot to appreciate that I was there last night, 18 years old, a lot older, more mature, wiser, tougher, and more in love with Jesus than the girl in 2018. I was standing there with two people that mean the world to me: my mom and sister. When I was so focused on how things were before, I lost sight of the beauty found in that very moment with the people that mean so much to me. The message began and so did the worship. The incredible message given by Christine Caine focused on “remembering Lot's wife.” In Luke chapter 17 Jesus reminds us to “Remember Lot’s Wife.” This is because when she was leaving Sodom and Gomorrah she was told by an Angel not to look back, but she looked back. She for some reason wanted so badly to return to how life was before that she lost any chance of being present or even making it to where the Lord was taking her. I feel like a lot of times in life we are like Lot’s wife. We want so desperately what we had, and we fail to realize that Jesus has something and is doing something new in your life right now. The beautiful thing is that the same God that I was worshipping in 2018 is the same God that I am worshipping today in 2021. Yes, circumstances changed, but the Lord never did. His plan for me never did. His love for me never did. The same is true for you. The same God that was present with you in the past is present with you here today. Moreover, we must let go of our longing for the past and rather fixate our gaze on Jesus and long to know more of Him. Don’t let your longing for what was cause you to miss what God is doing right now. Another thing is that often these longings are rooted in a misplaced hope. Our hope must be rooted in Christ, or else we will always be discontent with our present circumstances. True contentment is found in Christ and hoping in Him alone. This present season is so beautiful. You are exactly where you are supposed to be. The Lord has great plans for you. He is with you in this present moment. He loves you wildly exactly for who you are dear friend! You can go to the same place, see the same things, be around the same people, and see reminders of the past, but be a radically different person years in between because God is doing something new in your life.

Isaiah 43:19-21

“I am doing something brand new, something unheard of.

Even now it sprouts and grows and matures.

Don’t you perceive it?[a]

I will make a way in the wilderness

and open up flowing streams[b] in the desert.

20

Wild beasts,[c] jackals, and owls will glorify me.[d]

For I supply streams of water in the desert

and rivers in the wilderness

to satisfy the thirst of my people, my chosen ones,

21

so that you, whom I have shaped and formed for myself,

will proclaim my praise.”