"He leads me besides still waters"....

When Steve and I took our little day trip last Monday we stopped at a beautiful setting called Oregon Creek. The sound of the water gurgling over the rocks along with the beauty of it all just took my breath away. Water, in brook, river or ocean form truly 'restores my soul'. I found myself thinking of the Designer of it all--how creative He is and how He delights in sharing His creations with us.
I saw the 'peaceful' part of the water...the pond and just felt everything within me relax...
I thought about all the references in the Bible about water--how it soothes us and nourishes us..we can't live without it.
...how Jesus called Himself the Living Water and if we drink of Him we will never thirst.



A quote from Ron Hutchcraft spoke to me as a wonderful reminder of how I am to drink of Him daily...



Spiritual dehydration is the shutdown that occurs in your walk with God when you let your source of spiritual strength start to dry up. And it can happen pretty quickly when you live in the kind of spiritual desert most of us live in - like where you work, where you live, where you go to school. We absorb what our culture pumps into our mind and it drains the spiritual life out of you. The way to battle dehydration of any kind is frequent replenishing of the source of your strength.
Which is why David said what he said in our word for today from the Word of God in Psalm 42:1-2. Remember, this is the man God called "the man after His own heart." "As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for You, O God. My soul thirst for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?" That ought to be the driving passion of every one of us who belongs to Jesus Christ - "When's the next time I can meet with my God?" Without those regular meetings, we will dry up spiritually - and we'll dry up fast because we live in an environment that is so spiritually dry.
And in the rush and the stress of your overheated life, it could very well be that your personal time with your Lord has often gotten abbreviated, postponed, or cancelled. Each day you're getting hit with so much that isn't God's perspective, isn't God's way - and you know you're going to get the stuff that depletes you spiritually. You've got to commit yourself to drink at God's spring each new day, or you will find yourself beat up, compromised, discouraged, detoured, and overwhelmed. Not because the sun is so hot, but because you didn't replenish yourself with the living water that God gives you.