Monthly Archives: March 2025

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So pants my soul after thee

So pants my soul after thee

Psalm 42:1 As the hart pants after the water brooks, so pants my soul after thee, O God.  2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God?

One of the sweetest times of my day is the time I devote to walking.  This is my quiet time with the Lord.  It is a time when I can cast off most of the noise of this world and put on my focus on God’s Word and the great hymns of faith.  This is a time when I can take my prayer request to the Lord and wrestle with God on the daily issues that God has placed in my life.  David describes times like these as the thirst that a hart (deer) has for a drink at the water brook.  This thirst becomes the driving force for the path that the hart pursues.  May God’s Word and his presence in my life be the path I pursue as I daily mediate on God’s Word.

This is the importance of hiding God’s Word in your heart.  By studying and knowing God’s Word these quiet times of just reflecting on His Word and letting the Holy Spirit speak to your heart will give you the peace that passes all understanding.  It is wonderful to see in times of mediation how the verses of the Bible open up and you can grasp how God is working in your life.  Having the knowledge of these verses in your memory will open up a deeper relationship with God.  As David states in verse two his desire of coming and appearing before God.  Make your life rich and place a verse on your mind and go for a quiet walk and let the Holy Spirit open up a wonderful time of fellowship between you and God.   

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To live is Christ

Psalm 51:10 Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.

Philippians 1:21 For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

How must I live?  Paul gives us the secret of living life as we go about our journey on this earth.  For me to live is Christ.  Just imagine how rich life would be by having Christ walking beside you every day.   In time of uncertainties, you could just look over to Christ for the answers.  David gives this type of walk in Psalms one hundred and nineteen.  Each of these one hundred and seventy-six verses gives the believer the secrets of walking with the Lord and having Him create in us a clean heart.  As Paul states in Philippians the purpose for the believer is to live a life that magnifies Christ in our life.

The second part of Philippians 1:21 “and to die is gain” gives the believer the joy of knowing that life after death is greater that the life we have on earth.  This is the fulfillment of I Corinthians 13:12,13 “For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face:  now I know in part:  but then shall I know even as also I am known.  And now abideth faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”  For in death faith will become sight when we shall see our Savior face to face, and hope is fulfilled when we are in heaven and this corruptible will put on incorruption and this mortal shall put on immortality.  But our love will only grow as we praise our Lord for the victory he has given us over death to live eternality with Him in heaven.

Therefore, the goal of every believer should follow Paul’s advice found in Philippians “for me to live is Christ and to die is gain.”