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? Psalm 42:1,2
I can see David now.
He is out in the mountains with his flock of sheep. It is hot and dry and he is looking for water. A wild deer is also in pursuit of water. It’s mouth is open, panting, gasping for refreshment.
That deer will not stop to drink unless it knows it is perfectly safe. It will be listening for the sounds of a predator or any smells associated with danger.
David is thirsty for streams of God, this is his heart cry.
Soul Talk.
Oh I so desire for someone to connect with me at a level that stimulates and stirs up in me a desire that is hungry and open for God.
I want an appetite for nothing else.
I want my every need to be met through my relationship with God.
How often though don't we go off to other places to find life.
Common drinking grounds of second grade life may well be the career, the hobbies, the addiction, the control, the keeping of people at a comfortable distance.
Oh, and to find that water that can sooth the dryness of a hungry thirsty soul. I really need someone to meet me there for that. It might be a few words, a scripture, a holding of the hand, a prayer, an invitation to be quiet.
The Spirit of Christ comes along and says,
“My compelling vision for people is that they have an appetite for God, to know Him as the source of the deepest pleasure and that they have a taste of God (not the full meal, that's not until heaven), a consuming experience of God, which makes their other desires become less.” Larry CrabbI sit with people and listen to their struggles.
I so often want them to just let go of what ever they are holding on to such as an addiction and to just have an appetite for God more than anything else. That a hunger and desire for God would well up from deep within them and be such a strong pull that pornography etc. would just lose its appeal. It would be shown for what it truly is, a shabby second or third place option. They would see that what they have been drinking is filthy water, polluted and diseased.
Jesus told a thirsty Samaritan woman that he is the water of life.
Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” John 4:13, 14
I want to drink from the life of Christ. I want to help others to find him as the well of sustenance for their every need.
I am worried and fearful – Christ is with youI am angry and full of hate – Christ is with you
I am tired and weary of the burdens – Christ is with you
I want to do drugs and blot out my pain – Christ is with you
Is there a course to take? A book to read?
They might help, but this is an activity that is of the Spirit (Holy) where we invite the provider of the water to be present. Its not an activity that is dependant on our competence, so this frees us to hold lightly what we have learnt and to truly listen.
Soul Care is not a technique to master. It is not a list of ‘how to’—i.e., here is the ten steps to effective Soul Care, here are the right sentences to say. Soul Care is something that grows out of a vision for a reality that requires spiritual power to come out of you. Larry CrabbThat’s right, it requires vision of something quite supernatural to happen beyond what we could possibly manufacture through our competence.
We are totally reliant on Spirit (Holy) to lead us to the well.
Do you thirst for God more than anything else? How do we help others to recognise a thirst in them for God?
Leave some comments below.
Barry Pearman
