A Thirsty Spirit
Today’s scripture selection: Psalms 42-44
Key verses: Psalm 42:1-2
Have you ever been really thirsty?
I mean parched; feeling like you if you don’t get a glass of something, anything, soon you will pass out.
I’m not an athlete so I can only barely remember what it was once like to be running laps in gym, in Florida, in the middle of the afternoon. But as best as I can recall, those were the days when I would kill for a nice cold “Gatorade.”
Thirst is relentless; unforgiving.
But it’s also a great image for how our spirits ought to seek out the living God.
We can’t have much a relationship with God if we only pull Him out, now and then, when we feel like it.
We can’t really know God if we just turn to Him in crisis.
We need to be hungry and thirsty for His presence. That is if we are to fully experience the width and depth of His love.
The Psalmist understood this great truth. He could write about he could remember pouring out his soul in the house of God and how God filled him up again with spiritual refreshment.
He asks himself,
“Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturb within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, My Savior and my God.”
Are you feeling a spiritually “parched” these days?
Then turn to God again; turn to His word; turn to His love.
And drink deep again.
Prayer: Lord, quench my thirst for you. AMEN.
By Paul Simrell
The Reverend Paul W. Simrell has served for over thirty years in a variety of congregational and institutional settings. He is a recognized minister with standing in the Virginia region of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in the United States and Canada and is nationally endorsed by the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) for specialized ministry in both pastoral counseling and chaplaincy. Ordained in 1982, he has served congregations in Kentucky, Texas, Florida, and Virginia. He currently serves as the pastor of Elpis Christian Church, a small, historic congregation located just a few miles west of Richmond, Virginia. Elpis is the Greek word meaning “expectant hope.” He also serves on the associate clinical staff of the Virginia Institute of Pastoral Care, Richmond, Virginia, both as a pastoral counselor and a ministerial assessment specialist, specializing in executive, clergy and relationship coaching. He is a graduate of the University of Florida and Lexington Theological Seminary and has done advanced clinical training in chaplaincy and pastoral counseling at the University of Kentucky Medical Center in Lexington, Kentucky, Children’s Medical Center and Parkland Hospital in Dallas, Texas and the Virginia Institute of Pastoral Care in Richmond, Virginia. He is a Certified Pastoral Counselor, an ACPE Practitioner, and a member of the American Association of Christian Counselors. He is a Certified Facilitator of the Prepare-Enrich relationship assessment and skills-building program and served as a volunteer chaplain for over twenty years with the CJW Medical Center campuses in Richmond, Virginia. His avocational interests include playing the piano and drawing. He is very happily married to his wife Elizabeth Yeamans Simrell, a free-lance writer, who is also a Certified Facilitator for the Prepare-Enrich program.
Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton
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