DEVOTION FOR THURSDAY, MAY 24, 2007
PSALM 42:1


HOW THIRSTY ARE YOU? - A LESSON FROM GOD’S CREATION

 

1 As the deer pants for the water brooks, So pants my soul for You, O God. Psalm 42:1 (NKJV)

We seldom see the deer that live in the woods on the south end of our property. We may not see them, but we know they are there. If we get enough rain and snow, there is usually water running in the ditch or in puddles where the deer can drink. However, when these supplies dry up, the nearest water is in our pond or the ponds of the neighbors. (We have ponds that supply the water for our homes.) If you walk around the pond at those dry times, the fresh footprints of the deer indicate that they have been there to drink. They have become thirsty enough to leave the shelter of the woods to venture into the open for the water.


The writer of the Psalm has given us an example that is still true today. As Christians, we find watering holes from which we can drink of the spiritual water that we need. It may be in a church service, it may be a billboard, it may be a song that we hear, or a Christian TV Station that we watch, or many other little things that may satisfy our God needs for that moment. But what happens if that is not enough? What happens when your burdens get heavy and they completely overpower you?


How thirsty do you have to become before you will leave the protection of your comfortable world to seek the Living Water? Do you dare risk being ridiculed for your belief by going out in the open to search for the Living God and the help that you need?


The deer have enough desire to risk being in the open to get the water they need to live. Are you thirsty enough to step out in Prayer, in Bible Study, in Christian Service, or in living a life that is a witness to your faith, so that you might find the water you MUST have for living ETERNALLY?


I hope you are more thirsty than the deer, for you are not after the water that falls from the heavens; you are after the Water that is given by Him who also sends the water for the deer. One water is needed for life on earth -- don’t settle just for that. Be thirsty enough to seek the Living Water that is needed to live ETERNALLY.

WE PRAY:  HEAVENLY FATHER, it is so easy to recognize our need for water in our daily life. Send your Holy Spirit upon us that we might realize how great is our need for your Living Water. AMEN.


A SUGGESTION FOR LIVING THE DEVOTION

 

Make an effort to pray an extra prayer or read an extra Chapter in the Bible. Satisfy a thirst you may not even know that you have.