“As the deer pants for
streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O 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…..” (Ps 42:1-3)
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…..” (Ps 42:1-3)
It is good to thirst for God, even panting for the deeper places of His heart to the nourishment of our souls. It is good to desire Him to grace us with more of that thirst. I believe God uses and sometimes even orchestrates circumstances to make us thirsty. He may lead us into the desert or give opportunity to share in the fellowship of sufferings which produce tears and pain to the increase of our hunger and thirst for Him.
On Monday, the deer hunting season began in Pennsylvania. A pastor friend in the Northern Tier set me up in a tree stand with a great view. I heard scores of rifle shots all around me during the day, and some of them were very close. It sounded a bit like a war zone, putting sound waves to the kind of world many people live in every day.
I saw one deer, a doe. She showed up right after a string of shots in the forest. She ran by me at a full sprint, and I heard her breathing before I saw her. She looked like she had been running for miles, tongue hanging out, panting from the fatigue of trying to escape her enemies. It was a rather sad sight, but I could relate. Sometimes we feel like that ----running through life with our tongues hanging out, sometimes because we are in flight from enemies like anxiety, stress, misguided expectations, insecurities, overbearing people, and even our own selfish drive that causes us to feed on spiritual junk food. Sometimes we run from those things, sometimes with them, often to them.
I sat in the tree stand reading the Bible and reflecting on what it looks like to pant and thirst for the living God. It ended up being a great day of solitude and reflection in His presence. I prayed with hope that the circumstances my friends are facing, whatever enemies are there, will make them hungry and thirsty for God. Nothing to run from, no enemies to fear, nothing to hide from……but running to the living God who is sovereign above all and is always there with powerful open arms.
God make me thirsty for You alone, and help me to run to You and nothing else. Help me to hide not in the forest of self-protection but in the shelter of YOUR abiding presence.
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