You don’t need to be thirsty
Psalm 42:1 – “As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?”
The psalmist’s desperation for God’s sustaining presence is akin to the desperate craving for water on a scorching day.
The following is from a book titled “God want’s You Well.”
“There is a heaven to gain and a hell to lose, and you must have your sins forgiven to escape hell — most people are living in such a hell in this life that they aren’t concerned with a hell in the afterlife. They’re in strife, enduring divorce, suffering from sickness, paranoid of their surroundings, and terrified of what’s happening out in the world. They haven’t heard or seen that the Lord deals with these issues in this life. They just think that God is for the hereafter, and they’re shortsighted. They should be thinking about eternity, but they aren’t because they’re so occupied with trying to struggle through all the terrible things they’re facing right now. They know God exists, but they put Him off until just before they die because they don’t see His relevance to their present everyday life.”
God’s sustaining presence in the here-and-now is equally important as it is in the hereafter. In other words, our craving for water (from Jesus) instead of out of the ground should be our focus. If we focus on eternity, and receive the living water from Jesus, this life will not put us into howling like a dog for God to help us; we must have the assurance of His grace and mercy within us so we will not be desperate.
Jesus’s sacrifice was not only for sin, but for our very health and well-being. If all we do is focus on the sin part, we miss out on the rest of what Jesus has done for us who are of the faith.
Exodus 23:25 “So, you shall serve the Lord your God, and He will bless your bread and your water. And I will take sickness away from the midst of you.” God promised the Hebrews that He would take sickness away, and in 1 Peter 2:24 Peter writes; “He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.” God is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. The words He spoke to the Hebrews during their escape is valid for all of us who are of the faith. In Isaiah 53:5 further proof is given that Jesus has healed us. “But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed.”
So, God’s sustaining presence — the holy Spirit is now in us because of Christ sacrifice for us. He took away the sins of the world, and He also, healed us. We need to accept the compete work of God in our lives through Jesus: Sin forgiven, and healing resulting from that sin.
Shalom
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