Longing for God : Seven Paths of Christian Devotion

• 2010 Christianity Today Book Award winner
• 2010 Golden Canon Leadership Book Award winner

Think of the moment you last experienced God.

Do you know him that closely in this moment?

Truly experiencing the love of God gives us a taste of his goodness and his love for us, but often those moments are fleeting. We get distracted by life. Our awareness and understanding fade while our longing to experience him that way again increases.

In these pages you can begin to fill that longing by developing your capacity to receive and respond to God's love. Spiritual formation is the process through which one's inner self is opened to the work of the Holy Spirit, who forms us into the image of the Son. Here Richard Foster and Gayle Beebe, both experienced leaders in spiritual formation, introduce you to people from the past who have known God deeply. Each person helps you to grasp one of the seven primary paths to intimacy with God that have been developed throughout Christian history. Chapters are divided into sections, each segment surrounding a key figure and concluding with a reflection and prayer.

This rich resource can guide you into the same deep intimacy with God, opening you to the Spirit's work of transformation.

Richard J. Foster is the founder of Renovaré. He is the author of several books, including Streams of Living Water, Prayer, Freedom of Simplicity, Sanctuary of the Soul, and Celebration of Discipline, which has sold over two million copies worldwide; he is coauthor (with Gayle Beebe) of Longing for God. He and his wife, Carolynn, make their home near Denver, Colorado.

Gayle D. Beebe (MBA and PhD, Claremont Graduate University) is president of Westmont College in Santa Barbara, California. He is also the author of The Shaping of an Effective Leader and is the coauthor of Longing for God with Richard J. Foster.