As the Deer...

"As the deer longs for streams of water, so I long for you O God. I thirst for God, the living God. When can I go and stand before him?" Psalm 42:1 & 2

Does my heart really long for the Lord, really thirst for Him? Does my heart eagerly anticipate the moment when I am able to be in His presence? To be honest I think more often than not my heart is in a state of wanting temporal material things. Things that will wear down, grow old and lose my interest after a short period. There are most definitely times, usually after an amazing time of Bible study or praise and worship or after a particularly uplifting or convicting sermon, that I do long desperately to be closer to the Lord, to know Him on a deeper level. Then I come down off my spiritual high when I get in the car or come home to children fighting over a toy, another bill to pay, a sink full of dirty dishes to wash and hampers brimming over with laundry . Suddenly my heart starts longing for a vacation, more money for this or that, time to myself, and a maid to knock on my door to come to my dirty house's rescue. I think that it's really difficult to long for something you have never actually seen or witnessed, (your eternal home in Heaven). We are finite human beings with limited understanding and a sinful nature. We grow weary, we lose our patience, we long for something more. That's just called being human. I believe we are always in a state of wanting more, wanting better because we were created to long for perfection, Christ and our heavenly home. Since we haven't experienced perfection, we long for what we perceive to be "perfect" in our worldly view. In those moments when we are on a "spiritual high" so to speak, our hearts are turned toward the only fulfilling longing we will ever have, and that is to long to be closer to the Lord. Take time each day to "long for God as the deer longs for streams of water." It's the only longing that will bring complete fulfillment because God will never disappoint when someone truly longs to know Him better and grow closer to Him!