Focus: The God-addiction

Text: Ps.42:1,2

"As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God..."

My wife convenes a yearly meeting called, God-seekers. It is a meeting for women, whose hearts yearn for God. Interestingly, the word 'soul' is feminine in the Hebrew. Could it be that when it comes to seeking or worshipping God, that our soul is feminine? Give it thought.

*God's home

The human heart is God's home. He made and owns it exclusively. You can't displace or replace Him. Whoever the psalmist of our text was, it is important to see that his heart was hungry and thirsty for God. In Hebrew the word 'soul' is often used to refer to the whole person or one's entire being. No one who longs for God wants to hurt his fellow man. Seeking God is the secret of true human existence. When our hearts are yielded to God we lead a life of loving and caring for others. A person's true self never comes to the fore until it seeks and submits to God. A heart that is void of God aches. The throne of the heart is only for God. God is at the heart of the heart. No heart is truly healthy that is devoid of the being of God. We should let God who made and owns the heart to reside in and preside over it, otherwise the heart will never know peace or have rest. Idols of all sort sicken the soul, weaken the heart, and ruin the sanctity of life.

*God of the psalmist

The psalmist in our text is mindful of God. His whole being longs for Elohim. In seeking God he expresses pure emotion and manifests his real self. Every fiber of his being longs for the reality of God. His heart is throbbing for its creator and master. Truly, nothing can take the place of God in one's life. Christ is our life, peace and hope. Our true essence is found in connection with God. Count God out, then life loses its meaning, but with Him as life's center, existence bubbles with significance. Then life is worth living and our fellow man is worth loving.

*Godless life

Look at how the absence of God is making human beings act like devils! Take 'd' out of devil, and you have 'evil.' Evil and devil go together. Spell 'live' backwards, and you have 'evil.' Evil is life in reverse. The absence of God is the presence of all forms of evil. See the damage man is doing to himself. There is so much madness in our world because seeking God is the last thing man wants to do. Some even go as far as saying there is no God. Imagine a life that is built around the ideology or philosophy of atheism! Denial of God's existence only results in one trying to assume the role of a god to himself and others. Man has no existence or destiny apart from God. The Bible calls him a fool who has said in his heart that there is no God. You are not a product of chance, an accidental or mere collocation of atoms. You are, rather, the masterpiece of a mastermind, which happens to be the God of all creation and the very God of the Bible. Paul tells us that in Him we live, move and have our being, and that we are all His offsprings.

*God-hungry souls

Let us, like the psalmist, cry out, "O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is" (Ps.63:1). Again, let us say, "My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the LORD: my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God… My soul breaketh for the longing that it hath unto thy judgments at all times… Behold, I have longed after thy precepts: quicken me in thy righteousness… I opened my mouth, and panted: for I longed for thy commandments... I have longed for thy salvation, O LORD; and thy law is my delight… I stretch forth my hands unto thee: my soul thirsteth after thee, as a thirsty land. Selah" (Ps.84:2; 119:20,40,131,174; 143:6).

*God satisfies

The psalmist and Isaiah the prophet tell us that God responds to those who heartily seek Him. "For he satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness… And they thirsted not when he led them through the deserts: he caused the waters to flow out of the rock for them: he clave the rock also, and the waters gushed out" (Ps.107:9; Isa.48:21). God supplies Himself as the food of the soul. He satisfies the hungry heart and saturates the entire being with His very reality. Let's seek God.

by Bishop Moses E. Peter