As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God? (Psalm 42:1–2)
If we have experienced the forgiveness of God through faith in Jesus Christ, we should then experience a strong desire to be in His presence. If that desire isn’t there, something is very wrong. It’s possible that we don’t have a desire for God because of our own sin. Or perhaps we’ve experienced a painful loss and we feel betrayed by our Lord. It could be that we are simply distracted by the things of this world.
What concerns me today is that the people I encounter who identify as followers of Jesus and whose lives clearly exhibit a strong desire – a thirsting – for God … well, those people seem to be rare. To be fair, not everyone is outwardly expressive about their faith at an equal level so I want to be careful not to make too many assumptions. However, if there is a deep thirsting for God in our lives, it seems that would show up in our interests, our conversations, our decisions and our relationships.
After reading those verses from Psalm 42, ask yourself if you have a deep desire to be in God’s presence. To assess this, ask yourself if your life exhibits a desire to worship God when you’re around others and when you’re alone. Think about how you spend your time, your energy and your resources. Are you committed to a local community of faith … a local church family that allows you to worship God with other believers and form meaningful relationships that help you grow as a follower of Jesus? Ask God to search your heart and help you honestly answer these questions. If you find your desire for His presence to be lacking, spend some time being honest with Him about this and ask Him to redirect your heart to Him and to people who will help you walk with Christ.
And remember, He is your heavenly Father who loves you and wants what is best for you. In His presence is exactly where you need to be.
Dan Londeree 