“I Want To Yearn For You” (Guest Blog By Brady Howard)

Psalm 63:1

“O God, You are my God; I shall seek You earnestly;

My soul thirsts for You, my flesh yearns for You,

In a dry and weary land where there is no water.”

In my personal belief until you have ever felt the full extent and the depth of dehydration it is impossible to understand the life-giving and lifesaving abilities that water gives to the body.

I remember the first time that I felt the touch of dehydration.  

It was the summer of 2003 at a summer football camp.  Our team had gone away to what felt like some God-forsaken “retreat” center to have our annual week of football training camp.  Which consisted of three full-padded practices a day, with additional time for working out and two film study sessions.  The busyness of our schedule, while also including three hurried meals and very little sleep, truly left one wanting for rest and relaxation.

Around the fourth day of practice I began to feel the onset of the dehydration.  Now before I go any further I would like to say that my coaches did provide plenty of opportunities to drink water before, during and after all of our practices.  But the problem was… the amount of energy and effort that I was putting into hydrating myself still could not satisfy the amount of water the my body required for it to function to it’s optimal level of athletic output.

The first sign of dehydration was the fatigue.  But this is easily shrugged off because, “hey, everyone is tired.  Suck it up and quit complaining.”  The second sign is what some refers to as having “cotton-mouth.”  Where your lips and tongue are dry and contain little to no saliva to repress the feelings of fatigue in the mouth.

The problem with being cotton mouth is that even when drink water from the water hose or the water bottle, the moment you quit drinking your mouth becomes dry again because your mouth is so quickly absorbing the water.  So even though you are drinking water, you never feel like your thirst is quenched.

The next sign was physical fatigue.  But not soreness from practice but the overall lack of energy and the feeling that you are moving in slow motion.   This is often accompanied by body cramps.  Which is where the muscles in the body seize and lock up.  This is not only a sign but also increases physical pain to the body.

The final sign is one that most of us do not recall happening.  That is because typically once you reach this point you pass out and can not remember what happened.

For me, I didn’t completely pass out.  I had reached the point of heat exhaustion and dehydration and for a me a coach was able to see the signs before I actually passed out.  It happened when I had taken a knee and could no longer stand up because the cramping had become so severe.

I wonder.

Have you ever felt spiritually dehydrated?

Has your life become so busy that you simply have neglected your spiritual body?

Have you neglected replenishing your soul with what it truly desires?

Sure you are taking caring of your physical body, but are you over flowing with the living water that comes from spending time alone with your heavenly Father?  In private prayer, private scripture reading and private worship.

Psalm 63 points to David’s heart as he was in the wilderness of Judah.  David being a man after God’s own heart.  The King of Israel.  A man who had made mistakes and made choices that would forever follow him for the rest of his life.  He, being David,     knew what it meant to be spiritually hydrated.  To become so numb to the Lord that he had succumbed to the desires of his flesh and even abandoned what the Lord’s will and calling was on his life.

David show’s us in Psalm 63 that our spiritual body needs sustenance and the only water that is sufficient is the Living Waters that come from perusing the heart of God.

I want to yearn for God as my body yearned for water that day.  I want to want Him more today than I did yesterday and I want to year for Him more tomorrow than I do today.

If you read this, know that you are being prayed for.  Know that you are deeply and richly loved by God the Father.  He displayed His love for you by sending His Son to die in your place on a cruel cross.  But praise God death had no victory of Christ.  But He rose in power as He said He would.  And He has come to give you new life in Him.

Seek the Lord today, call on His precious and Holy name.

He will hear you, He will save you and He will sustain you.

May God bless you and keep you.

May His Light shine upon you.

May He bring you peace.