Longing for God means to find God, an experiencial knowledge of His person. Psalm 42:1 says "As the deer pants for the water brooks, so pants my soul for you, O God. This is a comparison and a yearning from the psalmist . The animal's need for water to sustain its life forms a fiting simile for a soul's need of the living God.
When we learn to long for God, we would develop strong hunger and thirst for God, God delights to satisfy our hunger and thirst for Him (Isaiah 55:1-2) and (John 7:37-38)
If we truly long for God. We will equally long for two things. First it would prompt us to long for His house(Psalm 27:4) and (Psalm 84:2).In psalm 69:9, the psalmist says , Because zeal for your house has eaten me up. If you truly have a heart devoted to God ,you will never be at ease to stay somewhere when the service is going on in your local assembly. You cant have such a heart and remain a perpetual latecomer to the church programmes, you would also be a contributor not a perpetual consumer.
Second, longing for God will propmt us to be longing for God's word(Psalm 119:20). It is a sign that you lack a devotional heart, if you always complain of not having time to study your Bible, regularly and punctually attend Bible study sessions and sunday school class in your church. Repent!
