Deer Pants for Water

                                                    

 

‘’ As the deer pants for the water brooks, so pants my soul for You, O God.” Psalm 42:1 NKJV

 

The deer’s steps become slower. He walks through the woods, panting.  A deer only pants when his body is ready to overheat. A panting deer is desperate. Without water he will die.

 

In Psalm 42 the psalmist says that his soul pants after God. The soul, the deepest part of us, is desperate for God. Have you ever had a panting soul? Have you known an emptiness inside that could not be satisfied? Maybe you tried to fill the emptiness with possessions, relationships,  alcohol, or something else. But at the end of the day, nothing satisfied. 

 

If we are honest, we all have been there. But there is good news.

 

Jesus said in John 10:10, “I have come that they may have life, and that they have it more abundantly. “ In John 14:6, He says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”

 

There is a God-shaped vacuum in everyone’s soul. It can only be filled with one thing: God. And there is only one way to God and that is through Jesus.

 

God is holy, and we are sinful. Jesus came and died for our sins. If we confess our sins and surrender our lives to Jesus, He forgives our sin and comes into our lives.

 

The same Jesus who died for us is the One who desires to give us abundant life. He doesn’t promise an easy life. But He does promise to be with us as we walk through life. 

 

Is your soul thirsty today? Turn to Jesus.  He alone can quench the thirsty soul. 

 

 

 

 

 

Invitation to Surrender

                                                  

 

“Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” Matthew 11: 28-30 NKJV

 

“You are surrounded! Come out with your hands up! Surrender now!” The police officer speaks with a stern voice. Multiple officers stand with guns pointed. The man opens the door. He is handcuffed and taken to jail. A common ending to many popular crime shows.

 

Jesus calls us to surrender our lives to Him. So often we resist. I wonder if we imagine God to be like the police officer in the tv show, stern and angry, eager to take us away to a life of misery.

 

Yes, God is asking us to surrender, but that is where the similarity ends. The One who calls us is the Holy God, the Creator, the King, the Lord. He has the authority to call us. He has the right to rule our lives.  He also is the God who loves us more than we could possibly imagine. “Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you.” Jeremiah 31:3 NKJV

 

In Matthew 11:28-30 Jesus invites the weary and the heavy laden to come to Him. He describes Himself as “gentle and lowly in heart”. With a kind, gentle voice, He calls us to surrender our lives to Him. His intention is not to give us a life of misery. Instead, He offers a life of peace and joy and “rest for your souls”. What do we do with an invitation like that? We come to Jesus. We simply come.