Thoughts from daily Bible reading for today- April 5, 2014
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
A fainting faith is forever in search of its heavenly Father. There is a building intensity for intimacy with the Almighty. Sometimes your faith faints from sheer exhaustion. It passes out for lack of prayer or even during prayer. Do not allow divine duty to drive you for very long. This is not a sustainable pace or prayer-friendly posture. Rest instead in the continual call of Christ. Service to God without communion with Christ, leads to spiritual fatigue. Your soul’s life is sucked out because fainting faith leaves you in a state of spiritual fatigue. The scary thing is that you may be unaware that your faith is on the brink of fainting.
So keep your life’s pace governed by grace, or you will outrun your soul. Time with your Master requires margin. In fact, any significant relational investments take place in the margin of your life. Margin is like the white space on a page of paper. It makes reading enjoyable, digestible, and inviting to the eye. In the same way, lives with margin are inviting. You are not an interruption to people with margin because they know how to make time for those who matter. That’s how you should look at your time with Jesus. Carve out space on your calendar to be with your Savior. You can do this by faith, trusting that the Lord will make up for any lost time. Christ can get things done without you. “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible” (Matthew 19:26).
A deer, by instinct, has no other thought than to slow down and drink as often as needed. Your soul cannot stand sustained times without hydration either, but we sometimes fail to take the time. Jeremiah reprimanded the people for ignoring their need for the Lord, “…they have forsaken the LORD, the spring of living water” (Jeremiah 17:13b). Just as water is necessary for your body to function, so drinking from divine resources is required for your soul to sustain itself. Otherwise, your faith faints for lack of the Lord. Your soul’s thirst is a perpetual appetite that can only be quenched by Christ. Drunkards try to replace their soul’s longing with liquor. It doesn’t work, for it makes matters worse by seeking a substitute for their Savior. Drink is a synthetic savior for a thirsty soul.
You can meet with the Lord immediately. He is always accessible. Get on your knees and pour out your soul in prayer. Drink in the love of the Lord. Guzzle down the grace of God. Sip on the joy of Jesus. Go to church and lift up your soul in worship to your great and mighty God. Drink in the praise and adoration of God’s glory with other sincere believers in Jesus. Your soul is satisfied in environments that engage you with eternity. Worship, Bible study, prayer, and community with Christ-followers quench our thirsty souls. The world parches your soul, but heaven hydrates your heart. Your faith will flourish and not faint as you take the time to quench your thirsty soul. Drink often with Jesus. “For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd; He will lead them to springs of living water” (Revelation 7:17). He refreshes.
Taken from the April 5th reading in Boyd’s 365-day devotional book, “Seeking Daily the Heart of God vol. 1” … http://bit.ly/Tv6y9a
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