July 18, 2022
Daily Devotion:
"When Can I Go and Meet with God?... "
Psalm 42:1-2
New International Version
1 As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God. 2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?
Twice the psalmist speaks of his soul being downcast, and twice he refers to his enemies asking where his God is. The picture being painted is of a person of faith falling on such hard times that onlookers taunt him with the thought that God has abandoned him. Have you ever felt abandoned by God? If so, perhaps you can identify with the soul that despairingly yearns for God. For those who have never known such feelings of abandonment, perhaps the greater loss is in never having had that experience. Imagine how exhilarating it must be to know that God is still there after having every reason to think he's not! For those of us who blithely sing about our souls panting for God without knowing what it means to truly thirst, the deer we sing about seems far too pampered.
The question for introspection is: Am I content merely to sing about panting and thirsting when God calls me to pant for him on a more desperate level?
