The Highest Yearning will give you a clear picture of how addictions may be defined as yearning or desire. The Highest Yearning explains how we all yearn for things. It is in our nature to yearn. It is only human to yearn. Addiction occurs when we try to satisfy our longing for one thing with something that cannot fulfill our needs or wants. There are stages of yearning that are the same as the stages of addiction. We move from acquaintance to allegiance very quickly when something appeals to our senses. The Highest Yearning defines our yearning as either healthy yearning or unhealthy yearning. The Highest Yearning sees yearning as a choice based on the value that we place on the object of our yearning. The value that we give to whatever we yearn for can take on the form of worship as we express its worth. The Highest Yearning discusses how unhealthy yearning could be idolatrous. In its idolatry, unhealthy yearning degrades God and ourselves. Unhealthy yearning is based on an inaccurate assessment of the value of an object of our affections. Both healthy yearning and unhealthy yearning are solidified with diligence. That which we favor is diligently sought and practiced. Healthy yearning is conceived and nourished through a relationship with Jesus Christ. The nature that is given to those in Christ produces the reverence that is necessary to stand in awe of God so that everything that is external is of lesser value. The sound mind that is found in Christ allows us to move on to the Highest Yearning that has a concern for others because of the reverential awe of God that is evergrowing in those who value Christ. What is your highest yearning? Is it a healthy yearning? Is it a yearning that is attainable? Is it the yearning that God wants for you? Is it a yearning that honors God? Is it a yearning that is selfish? Is it a yearning that is loving and useful to others? If any of your yearnings is not all this, then you will never be complete The highest yearning is based on a love for God. The highest yearning is the end of worldly yearning. It is a contentment that can only be found in a joyful, loving, soul-stirring intimacy with the God of all creation. The highest yearning is out of this world How many dead people learn? Not a one They must be in tune with the world to learn. Jesus offers spiritual life to all. John 3:36 says, "Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him." Without Him, we are spiritually dead because our sins are yet against us. To learn the things that God wants us to know we must have a new nature. We must be born again. Or born spiritually. Can a healthy baby lift a two-hundred-pound weight? Of course not That baby has to grow and then condition its body. Can a healthy grow man lift a two-hundred-pound weight? Only if he is healthy enough The way to healthier yearning is by being united with Christ. (It gives us a more powerful yearning as well.)For it is you who light my lamp; the Lord my God lightens my darkness. For by you I can run against a troop, and by my God I can leap over a wall. This God-his way is perfect; the word of the Lord proves true; he is a shield for all those who take refuge in him. For who is God, but the Lord? And who is a rock, except our God?-the God who equipped me with strength and made my way blameless. He made my feet like the feet of a deer and set me secure on the heights. He trains my hands for war, so that my arms can bend a bow of bronze. (Psalms 18:28-34) A plant yearns to grow. But it will never be the plant that God created it to be without the sun and the rain. And we never become the people that God created us to be unless our highest yearning is for the Son to rein But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall. (Malachi 4:2)