1 As a deer longs for flowing streams,
so I long for you, God. (Psalms 42:1 CSB)

There is this definitional and practical gap between want, desire and longing.

We tend to want a lot of things. This comes from the material world we live in and takes up a lot of our time and resources. Want runs the spectrum between light and heavy.

Desire lands more on the heavy end. It is when want blossoms into a burning need for something. This can be material or physical. Desire can lead us astray like neither of the others. Mostly because it is an intense emotional feeling.

Longing can be considered the mature version of the other two. If want is adolescent, and desire is adult, then longing is maturity. When we long for something we have moved beyond want and desire into something deeper. Longing we feel in our bones.

We spend our days wanting God to answer our prayers and our needs. We desire the outcomes of those prayers especially when we are in a difficult period. But do we long for God? Often our walk only encompasses the first two.

Inspect your walk and determine if you truly have a longing for God. It is in the maturity of this longing where God works in unfathomable ways.