December 18, 2013
I never truly knew thirst until I moved to a desert region. With humidity sometimes as low as five percent, and summer temperatures hovering around the one hundred ten plus degree mark, thirst is a nearly constant condition. It's as if you can feel moisture being sucked from every pore in your body. The quest for quenching water is almost a passion.
"As the deer pants for the water brooks, So my soul pants for You, O God." (Psalm 42:1)
If physical thirst illustrates spiritual thirst, then those living in this desert region ought to be more spiritually driven than any people anywhere. We who know thirst ought to truly know thirst for our Father. But, honestly, is our pursuit of our Father comparable to the passionate pursuit of a parched soul in a hot and dry desert? I'll dare say it's more of a casual encounter than a passionate pursuit.
Too often I find myself more of a kindred spirit with a lukewarm church, mentioned in Revelation 3.14-22. Whether verbalized or not, this assessment resonates more than I wish: "you say, 'I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing,' and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked' " (Revelation 3.17). True spiritual thirst has been falsely assuaged by the fountain of this world.
There is a general principle in life that we crave that which we develop an appetite for. That's the problem with modern diet: if we regularly feed on junk food, that's the food we crave. The same principle surely applies to our spiritual appetite and thirst. The solution, it seems, is to drink deeply from the true fountain of life; the living water. "You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me" (John 5.39)
The great irony of the spiritual life is that we are never truly satisfied until we are most needy. Jesus' famous Sermon On the Mount begins with a series of "congratulations" to those who are poor in spirit, mourning, meek, and hungering and thirsting for righteousness. The broken ones are the blessed ones because they truly need the LORD, and are seeking him as a deer panting for water.
The urgent need is for us to cultivate a sense of need for the LORD. I suggest the following prayer to help facilitate this:
"Lord, I acknowledge that I'm easily indifferent toward You. I know that materialist has potentially insulated me from a deep thirst and desire for You. Stir up a true passion for you, and remove from me that which falsely satisfies. Drive me to Your word, and to my knees in prayer. Stir up a true passion and thirst within me."
Steve
©Steve Taylor, 2013
Be sure to also visit http://thetruthrevolution.wordpress.com/
Amazon ebook devotional - http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00FQ1Q9GW
"As the deer pants for the water brooks, So my soul pants for You, O God." (Psalm 42:1)
If physical thirst illustrates spiritual thirst, then those living in this desert region ought to be more spiritually driven than any people anywhere. We who know thirst ought to truly know thirst for our Father. But, honestly, is our pursuit of our Father comparable to the passionate pursuit of a parched soul in a hot and dry desert? I'll dare say it's more of a casual encounter than a passionate pursuit.
Too often I find myself more of a kindred spirit with a lukewarm church, mentioned in Revelation 3.14-22. Whether verbalized or not, this assessment resonates more than I wish: "you say, 'I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing,' and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked' " (Revelation 3.17). True spiritual thirst has been falsely assuaged by the fountain of this world.
There is a general principle in life that we crave that which we develop an appetite for. That's the problem with modern diet: if we regularly feed on junk food, that's the food we crave. The same principle surely applies to our spiritual appetite and thirst. The solution, it seems, is to drink deeply from the true fountain of life; the living water. "You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me" (John 5.39)
The great irony of the spiritual life is that we are never truly satisfied until we are most needy. Jesus' famous Sermon On the Mount begins with a series of "congratulations" to those who are poor in spirit, mourning, meek, and hungering and thirsting for righteousness. The broken ones are the blessed ones because they truly need the LORD, and are seeking him as a deer panting for water.
The urgent need is for us to cultivate a sense of need for the LORD. I suggest the following prayer to help facilitate this:
"Lord, I acknowledge that I'm easily indifferent toward You. I know that materialist has potentially insulated me from a deep thirst and desire for You. Stir up a true passion for you, and remove from me that which falsely satisfies. Drive me to Your word, and to my knees in prayer. Stir up a true passion and thirst within me."
Steve
©Steve Taylor, 2013
Be sure to also visit http://thetruthrevolution.wordpress.com/
Amazon ebook devotional - http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00FQ1Q9GW
posted by steve @ 8:49 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home