This Week's Focal Passage:
"As the deer pants for the water brooks, So pants my soul for You, O God." Psalm 42:1
About two months ago, I was walking down the hall in church feeling very defeated and overwhelmed. I was silently crying out to the Lord asking Him what was happening within my soul. My mind could not comprehend how I could be studying, writing, preparing and sharing His Word with our Ladies' Sunday school class yet I was feeling a personal disconnect with God. It was about that time that a sweet friend, one of the most encouraging ladies I know, came walking down the hall. She stopped me and shared with me what God had taught her in a conference she had just attended. She said to me, "Michelle, I just have to tell you something that I learned this past week. The Lord showed me how I had been studying His Word and sharing it with other ladies but I was not using it as food for my own soul!"
WOW!! I cannot tell you how blown away I was by her testimony. She had no idea that what she had just shared was by God's design. HE used her to answer the very question I had just cried out to Him. You see, I had been so busy studying, researching, preparing, and gathering information that I thought would be helpful, useful, and applicable for those who would hear the lesson that I had failed to stop and sit at Christ's feet seeking what HE had for me to learn.
God began to do a mighty work in my heart that day. HE used our focal passage to draw me deeper into His Word, but this time, HE set my focus on my own spiritual growth. "Pants" in Psalm 42:1 is 'arag which means to long for. The deer not only longs for the water brooks because he enjoys the nice, cool water but he also longs for the water brooks because he needs the water to survive. As children of God, we must have a heart that longs for God. We cannot survive without Him. Not only does God provide for our physical needs but HE is the source of all spiritual fulfillment. Without God, we have nothing. Nothing this world offers will satisfy to the very depths of our soul. No matter what earthly gain we may have, our flesh will never be fulfilled and our lives will be wasted and dead.
Are you crying out to God to create in you a heart that longs for Him? Are you seeking Him daily for your complete source of satisfaction and fulfillment? Are you allowing Him to cultivate a desire in you that glorifies Him and points others to the cross? You see, My Friends, we cannot teach what we do not know. We cannot give what we do not have. We cannot lead others to the cross when we are walking in a different direction. It is so easy to get distracted. We may begin with good intentions, but along the way, our flesh takes over and we begin to make our journey more about us than about the Lord God.
One example of this is found in Luke 10:38-42. Sisters, Martha and Mary, had opened their home to the Lord Jesus. Martha's heart was to prepare a warm, comfortable place for Him to enter and be refreshed. Scripture tells us, "…and a certain woman name Martha welcomed Him in to her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus' feet and heard His word. But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she approached Him and said, "Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore tell her to help me." And Jesus answered and said to her, "Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her."
We all have many roles in our lives and many people in our sphere of influence. If we want to accomplish the unique and specific purpose God has designed for us, we must make sure the "role" does not become our focus! Our hearts must be steadfast, rooted and established in God alone. Our primary purpose must be to sit at His feet and learn from Him so that we have something eternal to offer those HE has placed around us. No matter what our role in life may be, our purpose is the same - to glorify the Lord God. Take time this week to sit at Christ's feet and allow Him to evaluate your heart against the plumb line of Scripture. "One thing I have desired of the LORD, That I will seek; That I may dwell in the house of the LORD All the days of my life, To behold the beauty of the LORD, And, to inquire in His temple." (Psalm 27:4)
