SESSION OBJECTIVE:

1. What is one wild or rebellious act you committed as a teen or young adult that you now realize was foolish? (It doesn’t have to be anything too embarrassing!)

2. Have you ever felt like you “lost” God somewhere along the course of your life (or perhaps never found him in the first place)? If so, describe the sense of separation you have felt and why you continue to want to find Him.

3. What is your greatest longing? In other words, when you think of something you wish you had in your life but don’t, or wish you understood about your life but can’t, what is it?

THE WORD

Read Luke 15:11– 32, the story of the lost son— the story we will be focusing on throughout this study.

1. Who do you think the three key figures in the story— the father and the two sons— represent?

2. When the younger son decided to ask for his inheritance and leave home, what do you think he was longing for?

We all have a longing to love and be loved in return, to find purpose for our days, and to make sense out of life when life doesn’t seem to make any sense. That longing is from God, and when you allow that strong desire for more to draw you nearer to Him, He will fulfill your longings. God knows your needs and desires even better than you do, and He has a life of meaning and purpose in mind for you. The “more” you need most can only be found as you continually bring your life back to your heavenly Father. Let your longings for more— no matter how intense— draw you closer to Him instead of pushing you away from Him.

THE LIFE

1. Finding Your Way Back to God says that all of us have the feeling that “there’s got to be more” to life. Specifically, there are at least three areas of life where all of us have legitimate longings: (a) to find love, (b) to find a purpose for life, and (c) to find meaning in our suffering. Describe a way in which you have a longing or desire in one of those three areas.

2. Have you ever had one of your major desires fulfilled but then found that the fulfillment wasn’t enough— you were left with more longing and dissatisfaction? If so, describe the experience.

3. In what ways are your dissatisfactions and desires pushing you away from God? In what ways are they motivating you to seek God?

Read the following passage from Scripture and underline one or more lines that mean the most to you.

“As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God? My tears have been my food day and night, while people say to me all day long, “Where is your God?” These things I remember as I pour out my soul: how I used to go to the house of God under the protection of the Mighty One with shouts of joy and praise among the festive throng. Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.” – Psalm 42:1– 5

The next time you’re feeling sad or dissatisfied about this lack in your life, use that emotion as a reminder to pray to God. Write down what, specifically, you want to say to God when you feel a sense of unsatisfied desire.

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THROUGH SONG

As the Deer

As the deer panteth for the water
So my soul longeth after Thee
You alone are my heart’s desire
And I long to worship Thee

You alone are my strength, my shield
To You alone may my spirit yield
You alone are my heart’s desire
And I long to worship Thee

THROUGH PRAYER

Pray the following prayer:
God, if You are real, make Yourself real to me.
Awaken in me the ability to see
that You are what’s missing from my life

Then go on to pray to God in your own words about your feeling that “there’s got to be more.”