I haven't felt well for a couple of weeks. That spring flu/allergy thing going on. Not a big deal, but I still didn't feel like myself for a few days. During that time, I turned my focus to physical preservation and away from spiritual sustenance. The thing about our physical needs is they scream at us to be met. They insist that we respond. I am understanding even more the reason that fasting is such a vital discipline. It gives us the opportunity to bring our bodies, which can be so demanding, to their rightful place in line. Spiritual needs met. Then physical.
We live in a physical world. We tend to identify physical needs that we have and not only meet them but indulge them. We have difficulty bringing our bodies into submission. We can be overwhelmed not only by our physical needs but by our physical desires. We are in tune with the things we see, feel, touch, taste, hear.
I have spent two weeks attending to my physical needs at the expense of my spiritual needs. As I have begun to feel better, I have become aware of my spiritual thirst.
Lord, I am parched. I feel dry. I need your water. I want you; I need you.
David, too, had times that he was driven by self-preservation. God had appointed him king, but David still had struggles. His son, Absalom challenged David and tried to kill him (2 Samuel 15 - 18). It was during that time that David probably wrote Psalm 63: God, you are my God.
I search for you.
I thirst for you
like someone in a dry, empty land
where there is no water.
Imagine the thirst of someone in a desert with no water. Can you get a sense of how your body would ache for water in the scorching heat of the day as your throat was throbbing from being so dry? How you would fight for just a few drops of water to quench your thirst? How the need for water would be the one thing on your mind, driving you each step of the way?
So was David's thirst for God. He was driven as if by the thirst of a man in the desert with nothing to drink. With a thirst that could only be quenched by God. He was obsessive in his search for God who would satisfy the thirsting of his soul.
So I want to be in my search for God! Only He can satisfy this ache in my spirit. I am keenly aware of the need to have Him flow in, through, over me. I don't want just a few drops. I don't want to sip it. I want to gulp the waters of His Spirit. As the psalmist said in Psalm 42: As a deer longs for flowing streams, so my soul longs for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When may I come to see God's face?
"Lord, I am thirsty for you. Thirsty for your presence. Thirsty for your guidance. Thirsty for your purpose. Thirsty for your mercies. Thirsty for your grace. Thirsty for your direction. Thirsty for your embrace. Thirsty for your peace. Thirsty for your Word. Thirsty for your Voice. Thirsty for your love."
But may my thirst for Him never be satisfied! May I never get "filled up"! "Lord, I want always to be seeking more of You. To have You spilling out of me, into the lives of others. May I seek not just to quench my thirst but may I seek to be poured out into a world that desperately needs you."
This is a fantastic post. I too long for pure thirst for the Lord. I do thirst for the Lord and for closeness with him, but not as much as I should. It's so easy to fall away from his teachings. When I return to his teachings I realize that I had thirsted the entire time I was gone, but my body failed to notice at that time. I have never fasted, yet I keep reading about the importance of it. Yours is another affirmation that I need to practice fasting. Thank you for your post! You have a lovely, inspired blog.
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