What Your Soul is Actually Searching For
A Biblical Answer to Human Restlessness
The human heart stands as one of God’s most profound creations, both in its physical and spiritual dimensions. When the ancient Hebrew’s referenced the “heart/leb” they had in mind so much more than emotional reactions. They had in mind the wellspring of volition. The seat of reasoning. It was the connection between what we thought, felt, and did.
It really is fascinating the symbolic/poetic and literal function of the heart in Biblical language. Just as God designed the physical heart to pump blood throughout our bodies, sustaining life through its rhythmic circulation, He created our spiritual hearts with an equally vital purpose: to pump love toward its proper object, God Himself. This concept was first introduced by the early church father, Augustine who suggested our hearts were a kind of love pump. Philosopher and theologian James K. Smith developed this even further painting a picture of heart as a love pump that was always intended to pour out love onto God. However, when sin entered the world, this love pump doesn’t shut off, it rather is knocked off kilter. This connects to the concept that Martin Luther and John Calvin popularized in regard to the impact of sin upon our hearts. They used the Latin phrase, “homo incurvatus in se”, humanity curved in upon itself.
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Before the Fall, our love and affection was rightly ordered. The heart’s love flowed naturally and unobstructed toward the Creator, creating a perpetual cycle of worship that defined humanity’s primary purpose and greatest joy. We poured out love onto God and He poured out His love onto us.
Perfection.
This was not merely religious duty but the very essence of human flourishing. Our hearts operating according to their divine blueprint, finding complete satisfaction in their Creator.
However, the Fall introduced a catastrophic malfunction into this spiritual system. Sin didn’t destroy the heart’s capacity to pump love. It messed up where we look to in order to find love and give love.
Revelation 18:14 captures this tragic misdirection with a kind of haunting clarity: “The fruit for which your soul longed has gone from you, and all your delicacies and your splendors are lost to you, never to be found again!” This verse exposes the ultimate futility of misaligned longing. Not only does it fail to satisfy, but it leads to irretrievable loss. The damaged heart continues pumping, but its misdirected love produces only unending restlessness and desperate searching for satisfaction that remains perpetually out of reach.
This spiritual condition results in an exhausting cycle of seeking and searching, where every promised fulfillment becomes another disappointment. We chase after “lesser loves,” as my friend Lysa TerKeurst say in her book, It’s Not Supposed To Be This Way. Objects, achievements, relationships, and experiences that promise to fill the God-shaped void within us but inevitably fall short. The tragedy lies not in the longing itself but in its misdirection and the inability of lesser loves to satisfy and fulfill us.
But it doesn’t have to be this way, because it’s not supposed to be this way. The gospel offers hope for our hearts to be realigned. First Peter 2:2 provides both diagnosis and prescription: “Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation.” This metaphor of spiritual milk suggests both nourishment and growth. We are satisfied with the purpose to grow. The satisfaction of immediate need coupled with progressive transformation. The only true source of this satisfaction is found in and through Jesus Christ, who declares, “Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal” (John 6:27).
Scripture reveals that humanity’s longings are framed around eight fundamental desires: Purpose, Freedom, Security, Rescue, Redemption, Fulfillment, Identity, and Christ’s Return.
These longings are not inherently sinful—they reflect aspects of our creation in God’s image. The problem arises when we seek their fulfillment apart from Christ. Throughout biblical narrative, we witness both the devastation of misdirected longing and the profound joy of longing properly aligned with God’s purposes.
The journey through Scripture exposes humanity’s repeated attempts to satisfy these deep longings through inadequate means. From Adam and Eve’s grasp for wisdom apart from God to Israel’s perpetual idolatry, from the rich young ruler’s attachment to wealth to the Pharisees’ pursuit of self-righteousness, the Bible exposes the futility of seeking ultimate satisfaction in created things rather than the Creator.
However, Scripture also provides abundant examples of hearts realigned to their proper object. David’s psalms pulsate with properly directed longing: “As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God” (Psalm 42:1). Paul’s declaration that “to live is Christ” (Philippians 1:21) demonstrates a heart fully realigned to its original purpose.
Only through Christ can our heart-pumps be realigned to their true source of satisfaction. Only in Him do our eight fundamental longings find their proper fulfillment. He is our purpose, our freedom, our security, our rescue, our redemption, our fulfillment, our identity, and the object of our eschatological hope.
As we journey through Scripture’s grand narrative, we discover that our longings serve as signposts pointing us back to our Creator. They remind us that we were made for Someone (Jesus), and Jesus is far greater than anything our world can offer. Most importantly, we find that these longings, when properly aligned, lead us to true rest and satisfaction in Jesus Christ.
New Opportunity:
As I work through various writing and research projects I’ll be writing first drafts and notes here on Substack for paid subscribers. The paid subscriber community is a place for us to interact and engage. Especially around specific research topics. Right now, we are talking about the idea of “Christian Nationalism.” When you upgrade to a paid subscriber you will have access to the Substack group chat where I will be asking for questions and feedback. Also, I’ll be posting very rough draft articles of my research and reading.
I’d love for you to join! Not only will it be a place for you to start doing theology in the context of community but you will also be supporting me in my research and writing projects! I can’t do this without you!
Ballor, Jordan J. “Doing Much Good in the World: The Reformed Tradition Emphasized Laboring in One’s Calling for God and for Neighbor.” Christian History Magazine: Callings: Work and Vocation in the History of the Church, Worcester, PA: Christian History Institute, 2014.