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I love how David poetically equates his dependence on God with physical sustenance in Psalm 63…
O God, You
are my God; And again how another psalm offers this same imagery in Psalm 42…
As the
deer pants for the water brooks, Here were individuals who, at the deepest level of existence and awareness, yearned for more than what this created realm could offer. Here, also we see human language being pushed to its very limit as it feebly attempts to capture the intimate condition of a soul longing after its Creator. Here is the language of expressive human need, of yearning, of a heart crying out desperately to survive in a dry and barren land. Our Lord also employed this transcendent language when He spoke to the Samaritan woman at the well… Jesus answered and said to her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, "Give Me a drink,' you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water." The woman said to Him, "Sir, You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where then do You get that living water? Are You greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank from it himself, as well as his sons and his livestock?" Jesus answered and said to her, "Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life." Clearly, the text-book descriptions found in our earth-bound religion and formalized Christian faith fail miserably when trying to capture the vocabulary of this inner thirst. It penetrates far deeper and wider than any derived scholarship, or method-driven ministry, or the quaint booklets presented to new converts each Sunday. Those among the “fellowship of the thirsty soul” crave so much more, you see. And perhaps more importantly, they are acutely aware of the natural incapacity of religion (as it has come to be) or any other created thing to satisfy this mysterious, soul-deep thirst. If you are tired and burned out in your service to our Lord, then perhaps this is what you are experiencing. Dear friend, I must confess to you that I, for one, am plain tired of thirsting over and over again, only to be left even more parched and barren than the time before. This is not what this new life was ever intended to be, nor should it ever be acknowledged as normative Christian experience. We were created, after all, by Him, and for Him, in order that we might live and grow in Him. And the first lie uttered in the garden is still, to this day, negating this fundamental reality for most inhabitants of the earth (and sadly, many of us Christians). Clearly, the thirsty soul, panting after the Source of all life, will be content with nothing less than the abiding presence and spirit of the Living God. Anything less is mere sugar water, and immediately recognizable for what it is. Like soda, it may snap and fizz for a moment, but it will never satisfy the spiritual thirst, which represents the absence of God on the throne of our inner life. The real and living water, offering real sustenance and vitality does not flow from this earth, or out of our temples and creeds and man-made fountains; it flows from He Himself, who made us, and seeks to stamp His image on our soul, that we may love Him and enjoy Him forever without end. The reaction of the woman at the well to Jesus’ invitation of living water was… "Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw.” …and that is my prayer today for all of us panting after God, that no longer will we come to the world’s well, whatever it happens to be, hoping to be satisfied, but ever walking away unfilled. May Our Heavenly Father satisfy your hunger and thirst for righteousness and for Himself! Please pray for us here at Living-Walk, that we would watch and see the Master at work, and understand what He would have us do. Your friend in Christ Jesus,
Wayne |
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