Isaiah 44:2-3 Longing For God's Presence

My personal devotions regularly include Charles H. Spurgeon's "Morning And Evening". Today's devotion was based on the text Isaiah 44:3. I was struck by the similarities between Isaiah and the author of Psalm 119.

It is possible that the psalmist is an early Pietist. He longs for the reality and the presence of God and acknowledges his utter dependence upon God to work in him. He uses picture words just as Isaiah does, the idea of "longing" and "thirsting" for God. He knows that it is God's own revelation to us (His Word) that will keep us close to Him.

"How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to Your Word." Ps 119:9

The heart and spirit of every believer knows there is more to their relationship with God, more to living a godly life, more to the covenant God has made with them, than they are experiencing. The very fact that "emotions" and "experience" are perceived as something to be avoided indicates that something is missing. We attempt to justify our lack by denying that "experiencing God" has any real validity. But you know that is a lie. In every believer there is a voice crying out to be close to God, to narrow the distance between where we are and where God is, to experience His presence.

In his devotion Spurgeon says:

"Are you this morning thirsting for the living God, and unhappy because you cannot find him to the delight of your heart? Have you lost the joy of religion, and is this your prayer, "Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation"? Are you conscious also that you are barren, like the dry ground; that you are not bringing forth the fruit unto God which he has a right to expect of you; that you are not so useful in the Church, or in the world, as your heart desires to be? Then here is exactly the promise which you need, "I will pour water upon him that is thirsty." You shall receive the grace you so much require, and you shall have it to the utmost reach of your needs. Water refreshes the thirsty: you shall be refreshed; your desires shall be gratified. Water quickens sleeping vegetable life: your life shall be quickened by fresh grace. Water swells the buds and makes the fruits ripen; you shall have fructifying grace: you shall be made fruitful in the ways of God. Whatever good quality there is in divine grace, you shall enjoy it to the full. All the riches of divine grace you shall receive in plenty; you shall be as it were drenched with it: and as sometimes the meadows become flooded by the bursting rivers, and the fields are turned into pools, so shall you be-the thirsty land shall be springs of water." Dare we allow ourselves to thirst for the presence of our Lord? Not the thirst of occasion, but the thirst of necessity. When one has been deprived of water for days every cell in his body cries out for it. We who have been away from the presence of God - the experience of the personal and intimate presence of the Almighty one - knows that thirst. We can only experience his fullest supply if we have the deepest longing.

"Lord Jesus, cause me to hunger and thirst after You and Your righteousness. Grant that the weakness and the follies of my flesh be revealed for what they are, that I see my deepest need and learn to experience Your fullest supply. Amen."

Bob Goldsby

Morning and Evening : Daily readings / Charles H. Spurgeon.-Complete and unabridged; New modern edition.-Peabody, MA : Hendrickson Publishers, c1991.

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