A fellow worshipper and I were talking during dinner. I was telling him about how I came to finally surrender my life to Christ. "I couldn't get enough at first. I read my Bible, I tuned into ministry programs on television and at night when that programming wasn't available, I found a radio station and I listened to sermon after sermon. At work, co-workers and I spoke of scripture we'd read that morning or sermons we'd heard the previous night and we asked one another hard questions. I spent time in chapel during my work breaks..." I described truly, a person who had been starving for something more in life and finding it, had been unable to get enough. They were sweet days.
I wish I could say that is always the case still, but truthfully there are many days when I let my life get in front of my heart needs. I skip Bible study in favor of picking up the house. I skip the televised ministry program I enjoy to run errands. At night, instead of choosing the inspirational book I'd been reading, I lose myself in a computer game.
What happens after awhile is predictable. I 'forget' more and more often to turn to the Word and instead, I turn to the distractions. I grow restless, become irritable and feel dissastisfied with life overall. Nothing seems to soothe me. The more I forget, the worse I become. I become whiny. I want something but no thing I bring into my life helps. And then one day it occurs to me that I'm hungry, I'm thirsting, I'm needing to spend time with God, needing to dwell in His Word.
Recently my husband combined two hymns in an absolutely beautiful mix for service, "Hungry" and "As A Deer". I felt it was so stunning a compilation when he played it for me. The songs just spoke to my heart in such a powerful way. I could so envision that hunger and thirst for God and I remembered the days before my salvation when I too hungered and thirsted but I didn't know what it was I needed.
What a beautiful reminder to me of that need to feast at God's table, to drink long and deeply from his presence...
Hungry I come to You
For I know You satisfy.
I am empty but I know
Your love does not run dry...
As a deer panteth after the water
So my soul longeth after Thee...
2 comments:
Thank you for your comment on my xanga site. Our thoughts seem to be focused on the same types of things today, don't they?
That was an inspired idea to put those two songs together. I'll bet it was very uplifting.
Thank you for sharing honestly.
This is perfect for use with the Bible Study group that I lead. We have been nicknamed "The Praying Grandma's" (loved it). Sometimes we get requests that we pray for very personal needs that people don't want shared with the public and we do pray for them. I hope you don't mind if I share this writing. We all get so busy we forget sometimes. The gals thank me for taking the time to do the work to put our study time together. I tell them I am the one who gets the benefit because it really causes me to study! I have a study Bible that I just love and it adds so much to my reading and studying. Grandma D.
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