As the deer pants...

What does it mean to long for you like the deer pants for the water? That deer needs that water simply to sustain its life. For every living creature here on earth, water is necessary for survival. Each of us has to have water to carry out our metabolic functions. It provides the base for our blood and the fluidity in our digestive tracts and it keeps all living creatures from over heating. It is so crucial to our existence and we know it. What would it be like to live for God in the same manner? What would it be like to long for him and need him just like that? I wonder.
There have been songs written and sermons preached and lessons taught from the passage in Psalms 42:1-2.

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.

That’s powerful when you really think about the implications there. My soul pants for God. That’s a bold statement. And when you think about it, it was and is sort of a strange picture and comparison of how we are to think of him. I wonder if some of the religious leaders may have told king David that he couldn’t talk about God and panting because that was disrespectful. It gives this incredible insight to how the heart was created to long for its creator. I don’t know what that is like. I don’t think that I have truly allowed myself to let go of all of my trinkets and wants and desires in this life to truly realize how much I need my King. I need my computer, my guitar, my playstation, my books, my music, my truck, my ipod, my job, my church, my family. But do I long for and need and yearn for my God in a greater way than all of those things. Do I need him like my physical body needs water?
I feel like I’ve become so blinded and distracted by those things that I listed before that I’ve in some way allowed myself to believe that I don’t need God that much. I feel like I don’t realize how important of a role that he plays. I don’t allow myself to see how much his hand is on each and everything that I take part in and participate in. For those who are married or deeply in love with a significant other, how do you feel when you haven’t spoken to them all day or several days at a time? It can make you feel empty and weak. Without that communion you feel incomplete. That is the closest comparison that I can make as to what it is like to need that fellowship with him. Having recently developed a true love of scripture, I can testify to the fact that if I go the majority of the day without reading at least some, I feel “not right”. I feel as though there is a part of me that is doing without, similar to feeling hungry. I need that fellowship, that word, that conversation with my King.
David called out to his God because he realized that was truly all that he had to hold on to. I wonder what it would be like to realize that. I wonder what would happen to us if we truly realized that he was all that we needed to sustain our lives. We say that sort of thing and sing the “as the deer pants for the water” songs but with our lives, we fail to live that. I feel like God is probably saying, “Let me show you how much you need me. It will bring you more joy than you can even begin to imagine.” What would that be like? What would that look like? To need him so much that our hearts, souls, and bodies would acknowledge that he is necessary to sustain our very lives, “life changing” would belittle the effect I’m sure. It’s my prayer for each of us that he would show us how much we need him. I want my soul to long for and yearn for my King like the deer longs for and needs the water that brings it life.