The Upper Room Daily Devotional from Nashville, Tennessee, United States “LONGING FOR GOD” for Saturday, 30 July 2016 with Scripture: Psalms 42:1-11

The Upper Room Daily Devotional from Nashville, Tennessee, United States “LONGING FOR GOD” for Saturday, 30 July 2016 with Scripture: Psalms 42:1 (0) For the leader. A maskil of the descendants of Korach:
2 (1) Just as a deer longs for running streams,
God, I long for you.
3 (2) I am thirsty for God, for the living God!
When can I come and appear before God?
4 (3) My tears are my food, day and night,
while all day people ask me, “Where is your God?”
5 (4) I recall, as my feelings well up within me,
how I’d go with the crowd to the house of God,
with sounds of joy and praise from the throngs
observing the festival.
6 (5) My soul, why are you so downcast?
Why are you groaning inside me?
Hope in God, since I will praise him again
for the salvation that comes from his presence.
7 (6) My God, when I feel so downcast,
I remind myself of you
from the land of Yarden, from the peaks of Hermon,
from the hill Mizar.
8 (7) Deep is calling to deep
at the thunder of your waterfalls;
all your surging rapids and waves
are sweeping over me.
9 (8) By day Adonai commands his grace,
and at night his song is with me
as a prayer to the God of my life.
10 (9) I say to God my Rock,
“Why have you forgotten me?
Why must I go about mourning,
under pressure by the enemy?
11 (10) My adversaries’ taunts make me feel
as if my bones were crushed,
as they ask me all day long,
‘Where is your God?’ ”
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The psalmist wrote, “As a deer longs for flowing streams, so my soul longs for you, O God. My soul thirsts for . . . the living God.”[Psalm 42:1-2 (NRSV)]
The corça is a small deer. As a desert animal, the corça has a sensitive sense of smell that enables it to smell water miles away. It is able to detect water even several feet below the ground. Even when the corça finds a source of water it does not stay there for an extended period of time; it keeps moving. Once thirsty again, the corça has to seek other places to quench its thirst.
Sometimes we can become too comfortable with daily life. We think everything is fine; but if we do not seek God in new ways, we may miss opportunities to continue to grow in our faith. We may miss experiences and lessons we only learn in communion with God — by drinking from the Living Water. (See John 4:14.)
Just as the corça constantly seeks fresh water, we can leave the comfort zone of our spiritual life and seek to grow in the knowledge and grace of our Lord Jesus, expressing each day our longing for God.
The Author: Francisco de Castro Maria (Luanda, Angola)
Thought for the Day: How can I seek God in new ways today?
Prayer: Dear God, remind us to seek you in new places and never grow complacent in our longing for you. Renew us with your living water, through Jesus Christ. Amen.
Prayer focus: THOSE WITHOUT ACCESS TO CLEAN WATER

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