“As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God.
My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.” (Psalm 42:1-2)
What do you live for? What drives you? What do you most often think about in the darkness when you can’t sleep? These are the kinds of questions we Christians should ask ourselves in order to continually monitor our commitment to Christ.
One reason staying spiritually focused is a challenge is because we’re naturally more oriented to the physical world we can see, touch, and hear. Another reason is that life itself requires quite a bit of time and energy just to keep it going.
But the downside is that we get lulled into believing life is all about activity, accumulating, and achieving – often to the point that we forget our life is not our own (1 Cor. 6:19-20). We forget that this life is only a vapor – here… and then gone. We forget that spiritual, eternal treasures are the only ones that last forever.
We are to enjoy the physical bounty God gives, to be sure. But at the same time we should be careful not to allow the temporal, the physical, the material to satisfy us or replace our hunger and passion for God. We need to remember that our primary mission in life, as plainly stated by Christ Himself in Matthew 22:37-39, is this:
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself.
This message of Christ is clear and to the point. Who do I love the most? Who has my heart? Is it my Savior and King… or me and my own selfish pursuits?
Wisdom presses us to consider that at the end of this life we will all stand before the living God who lives forever. And as God lives, we shall live in one way or the other. 17th century preacher Matthew Mead said, “God lives forever, and therefore, the believer’s heaven shall be forever; and because he lives forever, the sinner’s hell shall be forever.”
If you are His child, you have the glorious promise of eternal life inside you – the Spirit of God Himself – who secures your redemption (Eph. 4:30). Rather than grieving Him by wasting your life accumulating material assets and temporary treasures instead of investing for eternity, it may be a good time to take inventory of your heart and evaluate your priorities.
Because when it comes to priorities, Christ made it quite clear what the most important pursuit in life should be in order to righteously adore God.
- My soul must seek You as my treasure, Lord, because You are my breath and my life. I want to be able to truly say with David, “As the deer pants after the water brooks, so my heart pants after you O God,” (Psalm 42:1), because You, Lord, are the source of life to me.
- I am blessed, Lord, for I know I hunger and thirst after righteousness. Rev. 22:17, “And let him that is athirst come, and whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.” Through Christ, I come freely to You Lord. I desire for grace to work in my soul because it is Your Spirit that works grace in me, conforming me into Your image.
- Lord, I desire to experience not only the free grace You promised, but all that Christ purchased for me. My privilege to commune with You, and the comfort I receive from Your Spirit, is on account of the work of Christ in my heart. How do I show my gratitude to You other than in believing, in praying, meditating, and suffering for Your will in everything?
Further References for Psalm 42:1-2
Ps. 84:2, 73:25, 27:4; Isa. 26:8-9; Ps. 143:6; 1 Thess. 1:9; Rom. 9:26
