Psalm 42-The soul longing for God

As the deer pants for streams of water, so I long for you, O God.


The christian life should be one that we truly seek the face of God in every aspect of our lives. It is interesting to me how there are so often times when the idea of thirsting is mentioned in scripture. The word thirsting means "to crave vehemently and urgently." Jesus talked of the water of life in the book of John when a Samaritan woman came to draw water and Jesus asked for a drink. Jesus offered her the living water which would cause her to never thirst again.


What is this water though. Water is a substance that is necessary to sustain life. Without water nothing can live, but the one thing that often we forget is that without God nothing can live as well. When you believe in Christ, he will see to it that your needs are fulfilled. Mind you that is your NEEDS not your WANTS. The thing that I have found in my walk, the more I seek the face of God the more peace I have with everything, I also feel less fear and less worry. I know that scripture also says not to worry but in all thing s be in prayer. (Philippians 4:6)


But what does the psalmist mean when he talks about thirsting for God? When you look at the first commandment, In Exodus 20 you see that you are to "have no gods besides me." If you look at Deuteronomy 6 you will find that you are to love God with all your heart, all your strength and all your soul. This is really asking a lot of a person. God wants us to long for him. We are to have a desire for nothing as strong as for him.


The next thing that we find in this text is that the Psalmist's heart is breaking. This has been a topic of discussion for me lately in many conversations. God's favorite sacrifice is a broken heart. How does a heart truly get broken though. First it must be soft to hear the calling of the Lord. Second it takes a situation that makes us fall completely to the will of God. This is the point my life has been. I'm seeking the face of God because I've been heart broken over my sin toward God and my wife. We need to escape that trap. The psalmist even mentioned "remembering how it used to be..." In order to keep our faith in the right place we have to remember where we cam from. We are all sinners, no one is better than the other and that is why we cannot boast.


I will put my hope in God!

God is the only true hope in this world. This is why we should praise him. A song by Casting Crowns that came out several years ago called Praise you in this Storm. This song talked about how it seems as God could have done a lot of things, taken our hurts away, or made us more complete. But the one thing that we have to remember is that God does so much for us it is unfair for us to expect everything to be perfect. In fact it is our own sin nature that is truly destructive not God. Even when we are attacked by the Enemy it is still our free will that causes us to sin. God is who he is no matter where we are. We can either choose to ignore his calling or we can live by his word and become stronger because of it. We have that choice.

Consider Job, God allowed Job to lose nearly everything and at that in the most tragic of ways. He lost his children, his riches, and essentially his wife with her words "curse God and Die". But Job never would stop worshipping his God. For this devotion God blessed him, just like he will bless us in our faithfulness.

I hear the tumult of the raging seas as your waves and surging tides sweep over me.

Sometimes it feels as if God is punishing us, but a loving God doesn't do that. We have to seek him first in order to truly see the blessings that God is offering to us. Often times he blesses us before we deserve it and we need to be attentive to recognize that. God will pour his unfailing love on us and we have the option to either accept it or not. That is what free will is all about. God will not forsake us, that is the pain that Jesus went through on the cross. God is always right there by your side the real question is, will you acknowledge him?

Psalm 51 - Repenting and asking for forgiveness

In the last three weeks I've been studying the bible a lot more than I have been in the past. One of those passages has been Psalm 51. This passage was written by David after being confronted by Nathan the prophet over his sin with Bathsheba. How often do we have sin that has completely consumed us? I remember mine, in fact my sin put me in a place that I didn't want to be. I was failing at my task to God in that I wasn't loving him with all my heart, all my soul, and all my strength as it speaks of in both Deuteronomy 6 and in Luke 10:25-29. This has created major complications in my marriage and in my walk wih christ.
So you ask what does this have to do with Psalm 51 well alot. David wasn't loving God when ever he commited the sin with Bathsheba. David the man after God's own heart wasn't always able to keep God's commandments. Romans 3:23 For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. When David was confronted by his sin he looked to God for forgiveness.

Have mercy on me, O God, because of your unfailing love. Because of your great compassion, blot out the stains of my sins.
Wash me clean from my guilt. Purify me from my sin.

This should be our prayer whenever we turn to God to confess our sins. When I'm seeking after God's heart I know how much more difficult it is to see God's will and blessing when I'm twisted up in my sin. The sad thing is that we all have a way out of sin before we actually do sin against God. in seeking God we need to ask to be cleansed. The freedom in christ comes from that purity that is offered through the blood of the lamb. David begged for God's mercy and you can see that being the case. If we trust that God will show us the path then he will.

For I recognize my shameful deeds--they haunt me day and night

While trying to discover my sin I spent many night laying awake. I know that at times even when sleep came over me I would dream about it and they would often turn into nightmare's. Sin is the thing that actually traps you, even though many people think that their freedom is being without Christ how often do you see people absolutely trapped by their sin. Trying to walk a path without Christ is a path of self destruction. It breaks my heart to see others on this path, especially when I know that there is a better way. Christ offers that path and I am thankful for that. David realized that thru joy only comes from God.

Oh, give me back my joy again; you have broken me--now let me rejoice

The broken heart is one of the most precious things to God. I know that in the last three weeks since my heart was broken I have spent more time seeking God than I ever had. This has been critical to my growth as a christian. I know that I will continue to fail because I was a sinner at birth like everyone else, with the exception of Christ.

The sacrifice you want is a broken spirit. A broken and repentant heart, O God you will not despise.

I have given myself to christ because of my broken heart and I know that he is going to bless me because of it. By being in his word and having the oppertunity to witness to people in this time of turmoil I will see wonderful things happen. I am given every oppertunity to be faithful, the question is will this happen again. I'm sure that at some pooint I will fall away from Christ because of my sin nature, but as long as I'm seeking God I should be able to get right back on the path of righteousness again. I'm sure that my heart will be broken again like it is now for my wife, but I now know that God will always be there like he always has been. The most interesting thing about God is that your either growing or your not, there is no in between. My prayer is that God will wash me of my sins so I can feel the joy that only he can provide. That he will grant me peace that passes all understanding so I can be the best servant for him that I can be. I also pray that God will take the me and leave only him. Because I was crucified with Christ. I myself no longer live, but Christ lives in me. Galations 2:20.