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By: Darren Dye, Sr. Pastor, Freedom Fellowship, Canyon, TX
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. When can I go and meet with God? Psalm 42:1-2
I love this verse. I think anyone who’s serious about God connects with it. Of course for some it stirs remembrance of the classic worship song:“As the deer panteth for the water…” Yet for all of us this psalm cries out like an invitation from God. You hear His heartbeat. You hear His voice beckoning, “Come drink. Come drink.”
There are times we come to God for a casual drink. It’s like passing by a water fountain. You don’t really need a drink (so you think), but since it’s there…why not? Then there are the times we use God for the emergency drink. We get really dry and take just enough of a sip to keep us going. This isn’t quite the picture of deer panting for water! Ironically, as people in ministry, we often make this type of shallow drinking our own habit. We passionately exhort others to live differently, yet we unintentionally fall into the same pattern.
All I know is that my soul needs to drink in God. My soul needs to drink deep…long…full. Just like a deer panting for streams.
Why is it we get to that place of desperate thirst? Life drains most everyone, but you don’t have to be in ministry long to realize how much ministry itself robs us of God’s freshness. The psalmist actually talks about some of his own battles.([Have you ever read beyond verse 2? The psalm can be rather depressing! He faced taunting of the enemy (v. 3), longing for “how things used to be” (v. 4), discouragement (v. 5), and feeling forgotten by God (v. 9). What a list. The sad thing is that we can all relate.
Another hard part about drinking from God is that we just don’t understand Him. Verse 7 tells us,“Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls; all your waves and breakers have swept over me.” I have a love/hate relationship with this scripture. Deep calling unto deep–that sounds so good. But waterfalls and waves and breakers? So violent! What’s worse is that these waterfalls, waves, and breakers are not the activity of the enemy but of God. I don’t understand a lot from this verse, but one thing is unmistakably clear: God expects my surrender. He beckons me to surrender to something far bigger than I am and to something I cannot understand.
But could surrender be the drink my soul needs? I cannot escape the irony that the first verses talk about coming to drink yet here it talks about being consumed by the very waters I came to drink from. Could that be God? Because when I drink deep of God, I do it on His terms. I surrender. He fills. He doesn’t call me to understand Him. He calls me to trust Him…and drink. His DEEP calls out to my deep…my soul. And the panting of my soul is my deep, reaching out for Him. My place is to surrender…to trust….to drink…as the deer pants for streams of water.
Because we’re in ministry, we’ve got to know this. We’ve got to live this -not to get the next sermon or for the next counseling session, but because our souls need to drink in God…our souls. Drinking deep must first and foremost be for us. Positioning ourselves before Living Water is about our need to be filled. If we don’t, what do we honestly have to minister from?
Also, have you ever caught that the writer uses the word “soul”? That’s the mind, will and emotions. My mind needs Living Water–to be washed over by His truth, centered in truth. My emotions need Living Water–the gentle washing of His healing presence, washing away both pain and crustiness. My will needs Living Water–His strength to fill and empower.
There’s one more irony to this whole God wants me to drink…deep…of Him. Drinking deep is not just for my refreshing, it is also for His pleasure. I don’t understand this. It humbles my heart and short-circuits my brain. Yet I know that when I drink deep of God, it brings Him pleasure. It shows Him who I trust because I could run to any well (like I have far too many times in the past), but I choose Him. More than that, it connects my soul to His Spirit in a deep, deep way. My soul receives its much-needed filling, and His heart somehow receives pleasure in the connection together.
Is this not why He created us-for that connection? Thus, just like deer, our souls pant for something deep, something only He can give. Thus, we hear His DEEP crying out to us: “Come drink!”