Friday, December 26,
2014, 11:30 p.m. – The Lord Jesus put in mind the song, “As The Deer.” Speak, Lord, your words
to my heart. I read Psalm 63:1-8
(NASB).
My Soul Thirsts
A
Psalm of David, when he was in the wilderness of Judah.
O
God, You are my God; I shall seek You earnestly;
My
soul thirsts for You, my flesh yearns for You,
In
a dry and weary land where there is no water.
I wonder how many of us can say this and mean it with our
whole hearts. Do we sincerely and intently seek after (pursue) God/Jesus day by
day? Do our souls and bodies truly thirst and yearn after him? Do we even
comprehend what that means?
When we pursue someone we love and admire, we “follow
persistently or seek to become acquainted with” him or her (source:
thefreedictionary.com). It is a lot like when a young man and a young woman
begin dating each other. They call each other on the phone daily, write each
other love notes, go out on dates, and work on finding out what pleases the
other person, and work on doing what pleases the other person. We work on
getting to know everything we can about the person in whom we are interested. We
share our deepest thoughts and emotions with him or her, and we long to know
what he or she thinks and feels, too. Yet, do we do this with God/Jesus? - Daily?
Have you ever been so thirsty to where your mouth is so dry
you can barely swallow, and your throat is so dry that it hurts, and your
tongue sticks to the roof of your mouth? Water never looked so good as then. Our
bodies then long to have that drink of water and to have our thirst quenched.
If we go for long without water, soon that will be what is uppermost on our
minds, too. We may even begin to dream about having a nice cool glass of water
and begin to imagine in our minds how good that will feel. And, when we get
that water, it will be wonderful, refreshing and so satisfying! We may even
breathe a big sigh of relief.
Well, this is how we are to think and feel about God/Jesus,
too. We should long for and desire to sit at his feet each day, to talk with
him, to listen to what he has to say to us, and to drink in his word into our
lives, minds and hearts with the same longing and desire as we have for that
cool drink of water when we are truly thirsty; and with the same longing and
desire as we had in our pursuit of our first love. Yet, do we do this? – Every day?
I admit that this speaks to my heart. Although my Lord and I
communicate throughout the day every day, I don’t always enter into my times
with him each day with such longing and desire as is described here. Perhaps this
speaks to your heart, too. Or, maybe you have become too casual about your
relationship with God, and possibly days go by without you even spending a few
minutes in his word or in prayer, so thirsting after him and pursuing him are
not even on your radar. Yet, if you truly know Jesus, and if you truly love
him, your desire should be for him, and you should want to please him in all
that you do.
Jesus is our first love, and we need to pursue him as such,
and we need to long after and desire him as we would a first love. We need to
find out what he is thinking and feeling, and what he desires and what pleases
him, and we need to walk in daily fellowship with him, hungering to know him
better and to follow him wherever he leads us, because we love him.
His Loving-kindness
Thus
I have seen You in the sanctuary,
To
see Your power and Your glory.
Because
Your loving-kindness is better than life,
My
lips will praise You.
So
I will bless You as long as I live;
I
will lift up my hands in Your name.
My
soul is satisfied as with marrow and fatness,
And
my mouth offers praises with joyful lips.
God loves us so much! He sent his Son Jesus to die on the
cross for our sins so we can go free from both the punishment of sin and the
control of sin over our lives. He also died to set us free to no longer live
for ourselves, and to no longer walk according to the flesh, but to live for
him and to walk daily in his righteousness and holiness. This is his grace
towards us. This is his loving-kindness towards us that is better than life
that He gave of himself in death on a cross, and he took upon himself the sins
of the entire world so that we might be forgiven of our sins and be made
righteous through the blood of Christ. Amen!
This also speaks to my heart. I think for those of us who
have known the Lord Jesus many years that we can easily take his salvation for
granted, and perhaps lose some of that freshness of what it felt like when he
first delivered us and set us free. We can become too casual about his grace to
us and forget that there are many people in this world who do not yet know him.
So, maybe we need to be reminded from time to time so that our minds and hearts
can be refreshed and we can recall again how wonderful is God’s grace to us in
rescuing us from slavery to sin and in freeing us to walk in his righteousness
and holiness. Then, we will want to sing praises to him, and bless him, and
lift our hands to him, and we will want to tell others about his grace so they
can know him, too.
When I Remember
When
I remember You on my bed,
I
meditate on You in the night watches,
For
You have been my help,
And
in the shadow of Your wings I sing for joy.
My
soul clings to You;
Your
right hand upholds me.
I can definitely identify with the psalmist’s words here. I
think about the Lord much throughout the day and even at night when I am in
bed. He talks with me throughout the day, and I do the same with him. In fact,
I was in bed for the night, or so I thought, when he put this song “As The Deer”
in my mind, so I began to think on these words. I wanted to go to sleep, but I
couldn’t, so I got back up to hear from the Lord what he wanted to teach me. He
sometimes gets me up after I have gone to bed at night, or in the middle of the
night, or very early in the morning, because that is when it is the quietest
and I am free from distractions, and so it is a good time for him to talk with
me and for me to listen.
Sometimes, after my day is over, I will stay up late at
night just to talk with him about my day and to inquire of him as to what he
wants to teach me, or so I can bring my requests before him and/or to seek
wisdom and understanding from him regarding particular situations going on in
my life. I love to hear his voice speaking to my heart. It brings me much
comfort and encouragement. He helps me when I am feeling weak or confused. He
gives me strength and help, and shows me the way he wants me to go. I rest in
his love.
He often speaks to me through songs, and he has given me
many songs to write which are based off his word. I remember words better when
they are put to music, so this is one way in which he speaks his words into my
heart throughout the day when I am busy taking care of things here at home or I
am running errands or whatever I need to do throughout the day. I will often be
doing something or thinking about something when I will all of a sudden become
aware of a song playing in my mind. When I recall the lyrics, then I listen to
hear what it is he wants to say to me. Sometimes he uses songs as a way to
communicate to me his answers to my prayers, even before I officially voice
them to him, at times.
My Lord God/Jesus is very precious to me. I need to not
allow myself to become too casual about my relationship with him, but I need to
earnestly seek him and daily thirst after him as the deer panteth for water
when he is thirsty. How about you? Are you thirsting and longing after him?
As the Deer /
Martin J. Nystrom
Based off Psalm 42:1
As the deer panteth
for the water
So my soul longeth after You
You alone are my heart's desire
And I long to worship You
You alone are my
strength, my shield
To You alone may my spirit yield
You alone are my heart's desire
And I long to worship You…
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