I love that I lose my breath every time I hear your voice. I want to breathe you again. You are the only person in the whole world who can delight me with love in every manner. The secret of your beauty lies in how you rapture me. As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you. I can't for a moment, even contemplate being without you. When we are apart, my passion incinerates my whole body like a fire. Only in your arms can this fire be quenched.
As you read the paragraph above, what came to mind? A Harlequin romance novel? A description of the first time you fell madly in love? A poem you wish you could have written in your last Valentine's day card? Are you thinking I have completely lost my mind because the words have no place in a Sunday Blog? Whatever those 94 words invoked, most of you probably assumed they were words associated with someone passionately in love. And if you did, you would be 100% correct. What some of you may not know or perhaps completely missed altogether is that I slipped part of a biblical scripture right in the middle of my made-up "poem." That's right. Surprised? Psalms 42:1 "As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God." But you couldn't tell I placed that scripture in there, could you? Why did I do it? Let's discuss it.
How much do you love God? How desperate are you for Him? Do you thirst for Him as a deer for streams of water? Are you glad to hear His voice when He speaks through His Word? Do you delight in knowing Him? Is He beautiful to you? Do you need Him like the air you breathe? This is where this Sunday Blog begins.
We tell people we love God. We profess our faith as Christians. We say Jesus Christ is our Savior. We even carry the title Christian and are willing to defend God's principles when challenged by each other. But what about when we are pressed by the world? There are some of us whose love and loyalty resemble the Apostle Peter's. When in a crowd of your peers and asked if you know Him, do you deny Him or at the very least, stand silent not wanting to be labeled as "one of those crazy Christians"? You might not be that extreme, but I challenge you to ask yourself some honest questions:
Do I love God as much as I love my girlfriend or boyfriend?
As much as my husband or wife?
My own children?
Do I have a desire to be with Him like the longing I had to be near to my husband or wife before I married them?
Am I hungry for conversation, prayer, or communion with God?
Do I thirst and pant after His Word to quench my thirst for knowledge?
Those are hard questions. Many of which we are willing to ignore. When I worked in the mental health field I knew of male patients who killed themselves because they learned their wives no longer loved them. Often they confessed (as expressed in chart notes) they could accept the fact their wife fell out of love, but they could not accept the rejection of not ever wanting to be seen again, or that they were now completely cut off and not allowed some sort of communication. To accept this abrupt conclusion was not psychologically doable for them. The feeling and realization they never existed or ever had a part of their wife's life were overwhelming. The wives could hate them but the men were desperate that it be acknowledged they still existed. More often than not, those men who were completely forgotten were part of the suicide statistics. I witnessed the same pain in women who attempted suicide by slitting their wrist because they experienced a cheating husband or a bad breakup. And still, other's who had withdrawn and gone into isolation and deep depression over such betrayal and loss of attention. There were some so affected, that to even maintain partial ability to cope from day to day, had to be heavily medicated!
People need love. We need connection and communication from those who mean most to us. God is no different. If we were made in His image and we need love, then God desires our attention, devotion, and love as well. Haven't you personally read of or know someone whose passion was so high that when they lost their spouse to someone else, murder resulted? Do you know of anyone who has that same driving passion (toward Jesus) of ... 'I can't live without you'? I'm talking about loving God so deeply that the pain and loneliness of having lost that relationship, or even losing the joy found in serving Him, drove them to sleeplessness as many of us have experienced when breaking up with someone we were crazy about? I admit that even today, 30 years later, I still feel the loss of falling in love with a man, then finding his desire was toward someone else and not me.
When I view the news on TV and see large sums of people gather by the thousands for a rock concert where they are jumping, screaming and reaching out just to touch the artist I often ask in a sarcastic tone to anyone in the same room, "Do you think anyone would come in crowds like that to see or hear Jesus?" Yet, how easily we scream and literally faint sometimes over those who glorify drugs, lives a wayward lifestyle, and couldn't give two shakes about us. It's amazing how much time we give to things that in the end will not matter! Can you honestly say you love God more than your spouse? Are you thinking...' what a ridiculous question? it's not only impossible to love God like I love my spouse or even to that degree, but God would never expect such a thing!'
Scripture: "He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me, and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me" (Matthew 10:37) Have you forgotten that scripture? Does that scripture offend you? Confuse you? Is it one you reject or ignore? I think the message Jesus was relaying is this: In order to have a real, unadulterated love for God, all things of this world must be forsaken if their priority is of greater importance. 1 John 2:15, "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man loves the world, the love of the father is not in him." The material things we hold dear to our hearts are the most dangerous. They are the ones that take us away from Christ. Jesus does not mean that loving our families, spouse, children, or even the family dog is an evil thing. That would be a ridiculous conclusion since God is love. I've been guilty of loving things more than my desire for God and I think that's what He's saying. I don't write anything in these blogs I have not had experience with, struggled with, or been guilty of. SEEKING ADVENTURE use to be my vice. Yes, adventure! I couldn't count the number of times my priority was to spend an entire Sunday discovering new hiking trails with my dogs, or taking off spontaneously for a random day trip just to explore a quaint little town overflowing with antiques, or even how insane my insatiable desire for fishing and being around any body of water was. The keyword here is PRIORITY. These things were always greater than my desire to spend even 30 short minutes with God. I would shoot out of the house on Sundays and choose an adventure over the church, bible study, or praying to God. My priorities were me first! Let me ask wives this question. Do you put yourself above your husband or do you sacrifice things because your love for him is greater than self-love? Of course, you do! Or men, what about wives or girlfriends? I know to please them you will sacrifice things, placing yourself second. And why? One word. You know what it is... love. And by this, you know where your heart is with them. Where is your heart with God?
Here was the Creator of all things, the one who gave me everything to enjoy in the first place...being alive, the ability to walk or hike, the outdoors, lakes, streams, prosperity, time, freedom. Yet I was worshipping things more than the Giver Himself. I even used many excuses: I can't go to church, I can't fellowship with other believer's, I can't spend time in the Word because I need time to spend with the dogs who are in all day because I work outside the home. How fair would that be to them? etc. What a lame excuse! Those were convenient lies I told myself to mask my own laziness and suppress my own guilt! What about God's time? I was literally putting my dogs above God? How embarrassing to admit that even now! Looking back, I can truly see where my priorities were and what I loved more. I desired adventure and fun. I panted for things the world could satisfy me with. I am in no way implying these things are wrong. You can do them each day if you like. The point is, are you giving God any of your time? If you answered: I'm not, maybe very little, or it's always the last thing on my agenda, then the next question is: doesn't that say something about your degree of love for the Creator of the Universe? Because the truth is, if you love someone, you want time with them! I'd be willing to bet the first thing you do in the morning is kiss your spouse or at the very least say hello and acknowledge their presence.
Do you acknowledge God when you wake up? Don't some of you call your wife or husband from work just to say I love you? Do you call on God during the day just to say you love Him and thank Him for the things you have? Do any of you think of a sweetheart at some point during the day? Is your mind preoccupied with something you cannot wait to accomplish so that there is no time to even reflect on God? Can we say we really love Him when we don't even take a minute to say hello or talk to Him? You know, I can picture that deer described in Psalms 42:1 as he pants for a drink of cool water! Any hunter can tell you what a thirsty deer looks like after running from the predator who has been chasing him with a rifle! Near to the point of exhaustion and collapse, the deer is desperate for water! How desperate are you to fill yourself with the Living Waters of the Word? Your carnal nature has been chasing and hunting all kinds of gadgets, new technologies, ideas, hobbies, feelings, etc. to preoccupy every moment of your life. God opened my eyes many years ago to see this truth: Depend on HIM, not on any other thing, human or substance. We are to love Him with all my mind, soul, heart, and strength (Luke 10:27.) "As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
In closing, when you love something, be it person, animal, sport, or something else, the first thing you give is your time. You must have time with it. You ache to be there. Once you've secured the time, the second thing you give is attention. You do the best you can to give it all your heart and passion. After attention comes devotion. You stick with it vowing to never quit. Does this describe your love for God? My blog today is to get you to think. Think about your relationship with God. Has it grown cold? Have you lost your desire for Him? My prayer today is that He be the very air you breathe! Today, give Him 6 minutes and 6 seconds of your time by listening in reverence to the song above. Call it your worship time for this Sunday. 6 minutes, 6 seconds. That's all I ask. (make sure your speakers are on and turned up!)
"This is the air I Breathe" a beautiful song written by Michael W Smith and sung by Darlene Sczech.
https://youtu.be/f8o-PIcPXF8
This is the air I breathe.
This is the air I breathe.
Your holy presence,
Living.. in Me.
This is my daily bread.
This is my daily bread.
Your very Word,
spoken.. to me.
I.....I'm
I'm desperate for you.
And I.....I'm
I'm lost you without you.
(repeat)
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This is the air I breathe
This is the air I breathe...
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