I NEED THEE

Like a deer drinking from a stream,
    I reach out to you, my God.
My soul thirsts for the living God.
    When can I go to meet with him?  Psalm 42:1-2 ERV

Have you ever been there?  Have you ever been so thirsty for God that no one and no thing except His very Presence would satisfy you?  I have.  There is a song by The 2nd Chapter of Acts with lyrics that cry out this very feeling:

Goin' Home
I'm always goin' home inside
There's an ache in my heart,
That I can't bear…
I’m not saying you don't give me joy
I just need more of you
How I love you
And I want to be changed
Just like you
So take me home

God created us for fellowship with Himself as is evidence in the fact that He made Adam (and Eve) in His own image (Gen. 1:26), breathed His very breath into Adam (Gen. 2:7), the two worked together there in the garden (Gen.2:19-20), and God literally walked through the garden in search of Adam and Eve (Gen. 3:8-9).  Ephesians 4:24 also shows us that we were created to worship and know Him in true righteousness and holiness.  When Adam and Eve sinned that relationship was ripped apart as evidenced by their trying to cover themselves with fig leaves showing they now knew shame, guilt, and that they fled from God’s Presence as He walked in the garden calling for them (Gen. 3:8).

Ever since Adam and Eve’s sin in the garden we (mankind) continue to know shame and guilt and like them try to cover it up.  We do not use fig leaves but instead voice justifications.  (i.e. “He hit me first!”  “It’s not really stealing, because they have plenty of them.”)  We try to fill the void left by the absence of God with riches, drugs, sex, and any other thing that makes us “feel” good.  I remember a pastor once sharing that it is like the toy where children put different shaped pieces in matching holes.  No matter how hard you try you cannot put the square peg into the round hole.  With us, no matter how hard we try we just cannot put something in that gaping hole in our lives that only God can fill.  So we continue to struggle with this emptiness in our lives.  We are neither fully alive nor fully dead.

So we need and were made for fellowship with God, yet we cannot put God in that empty place in our lives either.  No matter how great our effort we cannot work up a relationship with Him.  Why?  There is still the issue of sin.  Sin brought death to the relationship between man and God.  It seems hopeless does it not?  I find myself crying out like Paul, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” (Romans 7:24 KJV).  I am so glad that God did not leave us in that state!  He gives us the answer in Romans 7:25-Romans 8:3, “O thank God!  He will! Through Jesus Christ, (the anointed One) our Lord!  So then indeed I, of myself with the mind and heart, serve the Law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin…For God has done what the Law could not do, [its power] being weakened by the flesh [the entire nature of man without the Holy Spirit].  Sending His own Son in the guise of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin.  God condemned sin in the flesh [subdued, overcame, deprived it of its power over all who accept that sacrifice.”  God has restored the relationship.  Who will deliver me?  Thank God, He already has!  So I no longer strive to put Him in that empty part of me.  I just open up and let Him in; and let me tell you, He fills up every nook and cranny.  Every time I open His Word and read I feel so full I think I just might burst, yet I crave even more of Him!

A white-tailed deer drinks
    from the creek;
I want to drink God,
    deep draughts of God.
I’m thirsty for God-alive.  Psalm 42:1-2 MSG

I dig into His Word, learning more and more about Him but this is only one part of the relationship.  I also spend time in prayer but this is also only one part of the relationship.  When you spend time with your best friend do you do all the talking?  No, you also listen to what he or she has to say.  When I read the Bible and pray I also take time to sit quietly and listen.  Often the Lord will remind me about another scripture verse that applies to what I am reading and I will look it up and read it and the verses around it for context.  Sometimes I will sense that I need to pray for someone right at that moment.  Sometimes He will just make me aware of His Presence.  This is relationship.  The more I spend time with Him, the more I want.  Fellowship with God is being completely satisfied – but knowing you want more.

“My beloved speaks and says to me, Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away.”  Song of Solomon 2:10 AMP 

Out of my shameful failure and loss,

Jesus I come, Jesus, I come;

Into the glorious gain of Thy cross,

Jesus I come to Thee…

Out of unrest and arrogant pride,

Jesus I come, Jesus, I come;

Into Thy blessed will to abide,

Jesus I come to Thee…

Out of my sickness into Thy health,

Out of my want and into Thy wealth,

Out of my sin and into Thyself,

Jesus I come to Thee