01/01/2021
Does our Soul thirst for Jesus? Do we love God with a desire that is so strong we feel as though we would die if it were not satisfied? Do we pant for prayer, or long for our need for God to be quenched by immersion in His presence, like the desperate need for water causes desert wanderers to throw themselves into it; gulping mouths full like each might be their last? Can we smell the sweet fragrance of Christ as if we are a desert animal... catching the slightest scent of water from miles away? Does the faint fragrance of Jesus lead us across the parched expanse of life’s deserts as we seek His living water? This is how we should love God, and come to find Jesus.
“As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God.”
Psalm 42:1 ESV
Quite often our prayers are simply filled with our own self-absorbed needs, and we neglect the fact that God loved us first, and that Jesus prays in intercession for us even when we fail to acknowledge His doing so. We forget that God desires our prayers far more than we need to offer them, and that the love of Jesus for us overcame His deep seated longing for life itself. So it is that God loves us, and Jesus came to redeem us...
“In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”
1 John 4:9-10 ESV
Yes God wants us to love Him, and pray to Him, and He promises to hear our voices as we do. We are not meant to come to him in our sadness, desperation, and distress alone, but in joy...
“Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 ESV
Moreover, He sent His Son Jesus that we would not simply love Him as we had been doing, or pray to Him in the same rote fashion each day, but to love Him as Jesus did, and offer our prayers in His Son’s name.
“You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.”
John 15:16 ESV
So we need to foster an intimate relationship with God that incorporates an intense love for Him, a deep prayer life that is desperate in nature, and we need to seek after Jesus Christ as if we were nearing death in our thirst for Him. But, how do we go about this? Well, we begin by knowing God. In my time of morning devotion today I read these words written by Andrew Murray in the late 1800s, and they are just as true today...
“How then can you acquire an intimate experience of the presence of God in your communion with Him? The answer is quite simple: Believe with your whole heart that He offers Himself as the listener. Give God the opportunity to make Himself known to you when you approach Him in prayer.” - Andrew Murray
So today, the first day of this new year, let’s resolve ourselves to rededicate our lives to the love we feel for God, and redouble our efforts as we seek after Jesus Christ in a way we have never done before. Let’s pant after God’s love and Christ’s salvation as if they were an oasis of cool water, and we were dying of thirst. Let’s fall into them with desperation, like a desert travelled, who parched after days without drink might collapse into a pool of life giving water. Are we ready to do this, and do so with intensity; with an amazing fervency of prayer?
Prayer:
Father, thank you for loving us, even before creation itself. Thank you for loving us with a love so deep that we can’t begin to understand it. Thank you for sending your Son Jesus to die for us that we might be forgiven of our sins, and for His willingness to obey you when you led Him to Calvary, and placed the sins of the world upon Him. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you our God who desires us to love you with all our heart, soul, mind, and body. We praise you for every prayer we offer, and that you hear. We worship you for all you are, and glorify you for each blessing you bestow upon us in answered prayer. You are Merciful Lord, and your grace knows no end as it flows over us. Jesus we pray in your name, knowing that this means we do so within the will of the Father. Stand with us in Judgement Jesus, and represent us as being pure before the Father, worthy by your sacrifice of eternity with you both... redeemed!
Rich Forbes