By Shirley Rosemarie Evans
O God, You are my God; early will I seek You; my soul thirsts for You, my flesh faints for You, in a dry and thirsty land with no water.
Psalm 63:1 MEV
Be ready in the morning to climb up Mount Sinai and present yourself to me on the top of the mountain. No one else may come with you. In fact, no one is to appear anywhere on the mountain. Do not even let the flocks or herds graze near the mountain.”
So Moses chiselled out two tablets of stone like the first ones. Early in the morning, he climbed Mount Sinai as the Lord had commanded him, and he carried the two stone tablets in his hands.
Then the Lord came down in a cloud and stood there with him; and he called out his own name, Yahweh. The Lord passed in front of Moses, calling out,
“Yahweh! The Lord!
The God of compassion and mercy!
I am slow to anger,
and filled with unfailing love and faithfulness.
I lavish unfailing love to a thousand generations.
Moses immediately threw himself to the ground and worshipped.
Exodus 34:2-7 NLT
Now I don’t drink tea or coffee, (I prefer a glass of fresh orange juice first thing in the morning), but I’ve heard it said that there is nothing like that first cuppa of the day, and the day doesn’t start without that first drink.
Such was David’s need for God his declaration was that his soul thirsted for God. Thirst produces the desire to drink, thirst is not satisfied without drinking. Such was David’s desire for the presence of God. Feeling a thirst for God a longing that nothing will satisfy except the presence of the Lord.
I recall being in love as a teenager and I would spend most of the day with him and then as soon as he left, I would miss him and then spend half the night on the phone talking. I never tired of spending time with him. This is how we should feel about our relationship with God. We wake up thirsty for His presence, He is the object of our desire.
David says his flesh faints for God in a dry land with no water, The simple truth is that our flesh will crave many things and whatever we feed our flesh is what we will desire. Ask someone who loves chocolate to try to give it up! (Or is that just me?) David clearly made the presence of the Lord His utmost desire and nothing else on earth could satisfy that need. To crave the presence of the Lord we must be thirsty. Where there is no thirst there is no desire to drink. Have you ever tried giving a bottle to a full baby?
The challenge is training our appetites, to develop the practice of the presence of the Lord. It is not our natural inclination to disrupt our established routines or deny ourselves that extra half hour in bed before the rush of the day before we need to prepare for work, school runs etc. No, this does not happen naturally; we must be intentional and get past our inclinations and wants to set aside and honour that time. After a while, we, like David, will feel thirsty and nothing will fill the space or refresh and water our souls like that time spent in His presence.
Do you know that we were created for His presence as image bearers? God’s great plan is that all humankind would reflect His glory throughout the earth. Unfortunately, the further man has moved away from their creator the more the glory has diminished, diminished but not extinguished.
Being in His presence changes us. We are being conformed to His image - less of us and more of Him. We leave His presence and, like Moses, we glow from the inside. We are filled with so much peace, the kind that surpasses understanding so that we are not easily offended. We are gracious in the face of rudeness, and we are patient when our last nerve has been got on. Being in His presence is an Ahhh moment. Thank you, God, for the Ahhh! Isn’t this a great way to start the day?
Ask: Why would David have such a longing for the presence of the Lord?
Seek: Are you thirsty?
Knock: If you already are in the habit of rising early to spend time in God’s presence, ask God through His Spirit to increase your appetite and desire so that you never tire of seeking His presence. If you do not presently have this desire, ask God to awaken the desire in you to seek Him early.
(Upper Photo by Dawid Zawiła on Unsplash)
(Inner Photo by Tim Foster on Unsplash)
