In Times of Refreshing

“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?” (Psalm 42:1-2)

Imagine a deer on the run as it is being chased by its enemies.  It’s on its last leg, mouth dry, panting hard, longing desperately for refreshing water.  This was the kind of thirst the psalmist is talking about.  Perhaps he felt like a hunted man, as though he was on his last leg.  Whether his situation was real or imagined, he was clear about what he needed, “My soul thirsts for God.”  He longed and mourned after the living God.  Just as the physical body thirsts for water, so do our souls, but it is a thirst that can only be quenched in God.  Jesus said to the woman at the well, “…but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (John 4:14)

One of the wonderful things about Scripture is the way it can speak to us where we are.  In this way, Scripture reaches out to us, identifies with us, and also points us to Christ.  This is certainly the case with these verses.  Do we hear the cry of our hearts, when doubts plague us, and when we feel distant and apart from the Lord?  Are we not, as the psalmist does, longing for the presence of God?

It's in these times that God comes and refreshes us, and by this refreshing there comes growth.  But often we need to be in this place of desperation before we can truly hunger and thirst after God, and cry out to Him with all our hearts.  We don't have the same desperation when we're happily going through life, so God allows these desert experiences that causes us to pant, and long for the water of God.  If you need refreshing today, come to Him, drink deeply, and you will be satisfied.  May we, by God’s grace, know what it is to long for Him with every fiber of our being. 

And may we find fulfillment and refreshment in His word and in His presence. 

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