Heart Tracks - Digging Deep

"My soul thirsts for God, the living God. When can I go and meet with God?" Psalm 42:2..."Complacency is the deadly foe of all spiritual growth. Acute desire must be present or there will be no manifestation of Christ to His people. He waits to be wanted. With many of us, He waits so long in vain." A.W. Tozer

I recently read an article by J. Lee Grady about his visit to the Holy Land. On it he went the site of Jacob's well. He said that though a number of Holy Land sites are disputed as to their authenticity, there is no doubt as to that of Jacob's well. He said that visitors to the site are allowed to lower a bucket into the well and draw water up for a drink. He was amazed at how deep that well was; 131 feet down through solid rock. Then he thought upon how arduous the work would be today, let alone 3000 years ago to dig down and actually reach that water. 2000 years ago that very well was the place where Jesus sat and was offered water by the Samaritan woman, and in return, Jesus offered her His Water of Life. The point of his writing was that though Christ freely offers His Life Water, our part is to dig deeply in order to drink of it. It does not come to those who have only a half-hearted desire for it.

I just read a headline that said survey's show the majority of American believers don't read their Bible's every day, or at all. Actual relational prayer with Him is likely even less. I remember seeing some years back the results of a survey that reported that the average daily prayer time of pastors was around 5 minutes per day. With this information, the above words of Tozer should pierce our hearts. Do they? How complacent are we as concerns living in and experiencing His Presence? Do we lounge around "Jacob's well," waiting for Him to show up and draw the water for us? And in the meantime, are we trying to satisfy ourselves with the "soda pop" of this world?

This is not an advocating for a works based faith, but at the same time, true heart desire for Him must be present if we are ever going to realize the wonder of His abundant life, and if we are ever going to know the satisfaction and joy of drinking Him to the full, to overflowing.

We have, in too many ways, become an irreverent, lazy people. We depend on pastors and teachers to tell us what He's saying and doing. We demand to be fed, and become very angry if we're not. Can we imagine how we must look to Him, grown, or almost grown men and women, sitting in our "high chairs," waiting for our food, and loudly complaining about its quality? In His Word, the Father says He is a Mystery, but a Mystery He longs for us to know. He created us to pursue Him, but we're much more fond of the idea of Him pursuing us. Surely in our lost state He does so, but once the relationship has begun, He, as Tozer states, wants to be deeply desired. He waits for it. Does He wait for that with you and me?

His Water of Life is a never ending river, a well that is infinitely deep. How badly, in our day to day lives do we want it? How deeply do we dig? Are we pursuers or loungers? Be assured, our lives reflect and show just which we are.

Blessings,
Pastor O