Desire for God

As the deer pants for the water brooks,
so pants my soul for You, O God.
Psalm 42:1 NKJV

Here's a thought that came to me in the midst of meditating during my morning commute. This wasn't even any part of my Bible reading for this morning, or last night. I can't even remember how this one came to me at first. But let's say it has overtaken my thoughts today.

This is a simple and short sentence, but it speaks tons. David writes of an urgent and driving desire to be in God's presence. As the deer pants for the water brooks. You know, deer have this insatiable desire for the water they need to drink. When it comes on them, they must get to where the water is, and they don't care what's in their way. They'll jump fences along freeways if they can.

Now being in the presence of God in prayer and worship, and I write about personal prayer and worship, is what God has designed us for. It is the only thing that really fulfills our inner being. When we sincerely seek God in private prayer, God reciprocates, or answers back, with an experience of His presence. That response from God is something we then desire again and again.

Since I work a lot in the marketing realm, I tend to relate to things like commercials. I know that sounds dumb, but it's true. A sign of my upbringing. You know those cereal commercials where the kids basically turn into monsters, or what not, to illustrate how much they "need" or desire those Corn Pops? "I gotta have my Pops!" they say. Or when the Chef Boy-ar-dee can comes around, the kids chase after it with reckless abandon. This is kind of like what David was experiencing. He just had to have his time with God.

After ruling the kingdom for a long day, he just needed to get away and into the presence of God. Do you have some time after your responsibilities are over, so you can do this? Back in my single days, I remember making my closet literally a prayer closet. Making a mat out of some old blanket, getting inside and crouching in the darkness to pour out my heart before the Lord. I knew if someone was looking for me, they wouldn't think of looking there.

At another time, when I had no closet, or similar space, my bed was high enough for me to slide under, clasp my hands over my face and take my time to be with God. Have you ever come out of some time like that, maybe after a solid half hour, or hour, with the sweetness of the presence of God on you? Is this the kind of thing that is greatly lacking in our day? I know I have made many other busy things pull me away from this over the past few years.

One other important thing about this drive for the water the deer have: it occurs every day, and twice a day, in fact. In the early morning and early twilight. And of course, we morning commuters are well aware of this fact.

So, will we nurture this today? If we desire more sensitivity to the Holy Spirit, more fellowship with our Savior, and just being more used of God, we urgently need this.

Immersion in God’s Word

Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD:
And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.
And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart:
And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.
And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes.
And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates.
Deut. 6:4-9

This is the grand introduction to the final exhortation Moses gave the Israelites before they went into the promised land. He gives an impassioned imperative for them to love the Lord God and to keep His commands in sight in every aspect of life.

What strikes me here today is not so much the exhortation to love God, but something we might usually speed over: the call to keep our minds dwelling on God's word.

Our greatest danger is getting distracted, or preoccupied with other things. The pressures of life are very urgent in today's world. Not only that, we have the constant noise of entertainment and marketing all around us. We cannot avoid it; we need to be able to "block" it out, if you will.

I can imagine there were certain distractions in the desert, and more were coming with the new Promised Land before them, ready for planting, harvesting and building. But today, there are manifold more, I think. The marketing and advertising research gurus have estimated we are bombarded with somewhere between two to three thousand marketing messages a day! Imagine that. We need to make sure we get our best message, and the one with the most staying power, from God.

That's why God, through Moses, tells us to keep God's commands in our heart. Why we should make them an important part of our conversations, and keep them before our eyes. I think the practical idea here is for us to keep God's word in the midst of our imagination and most forward thoughts.

So with that in mind, here's some questions for ourselves:

Do we firstly, read the Bible, regularly? A few minutes a day still can keep it available in our minds. Hey, guys! If you think your life is too busy, then put it where you know you can grab it for a few minutes. Yes, that's right; the top of the toilet tank is not unbecoming for a copy of the Bible, if your intention is to make it available, IMO.

Do we memorize verses? We all can memorize phone numbers, passwords and such. We certainly can memorize a verse that God wants us to make a part of our lives. Making God's word available in our hearts allows Him to bring it back to us when we need it.

Do we meditate on God's word? God made a point blank promise that if we make it a habit to meditate on his word we will be successful and prosper in all we do, in God's eyes anyway. And that's what matters.

To follow these points and thus fulfill what the Lord wants us to do here takes effort and time. It need be only a few minutes out of every busy day. But it is our key, or at least it is my key, to staying in victorious fellowship with God.