Connection and Thirst

Please join me in welcoming a dear friend, Angela Mackey, to Jesus & My Orange Juice. Within thirty minutes of meeting, we were laughing like lifelong friends. Angela touches my heart and inspires my soul. You will want to connect with her on her blog, Twitter and Facebook.

Also, be sure and visit her blog today where I am guest posting for Angela as well.
___________________

Disconnected. Sounds swell, children move, people rush, cars zoom, and I stare into space. Each of my movements are leaden and off sync. How I long for connection.

How do you connect with the world when it is running at a different pace than you?

How do you find joy when the well has run dry?

My lips stick to my teeth and my tongue feels two sizes bigger than normal. Water. I need living water that flows as a stream.

But there are bills to pay, children to take to school, activities to be done, friends to meet. Sure I pray, but my soul remains dry. My soul hungers for more. I quote a memory verse and pray more, but it is not enough.

“As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God.” Psalm 42:1

Is this what David meant? The times when my soul feels dry, my heart heavy, and my mind slow, is that when I really am thirsting for God?

God made us for connection through community. He – God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit – lives in perfect community. Oh that we would spend time in community with Him. Daily reading His word, praising His goodness, worshiping His attributes, and calling out to Him.

It is there in His word that He meets our need for connection. The community that we seek may be found in Him, but also in sharing with others what He is teaching us. Oh that we would realize our thirst is only quenched in Him, the Living Water.

Connection and thirst are these God designed that we may desire more of Him? Are they kind reminders that we need connection with God and water from His Spirit?

Let us pray that God helps us fill those desires with Him – His word, His Spirit, His community.

Will you join me as I:

·         Read God’s word daily?

·         Spend time on our knees in prayer daily (just five minutes a day)?

·        Praise Him out loud daily. We can do this in song, to others as we tell them the things God is doing in our lives, as we pray, etc?

Will you join me? May these steps only increase our desire for connection to God and thirst for God. That we may live transformed lives for His glory.

What do you do when you desire connection and thirst for God?

___________________

Angela Mackey lives in the Arkansas River Valley with her wonderfully supportive husband and three amazing children. She is passionate about teaching women to renew their minds through God’s word so that they may live transformed lives. Angela is a writer, speaker, nurse, and stay-at-home mom who openly shares her struggle with infertility. She loves college basketball (especially the Kansas Jayhawks), reading, writing, and laughing at herself. You can connect with her on her blog at www.rethinkingmythinking.com. She is also on twitter www.twitter.com/Rethinkingme and on facebook at www.facebook.com/RethinkingMyThinking.

Get Your Pant On

Psalm 42:1-2 As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?

She climbed into our dusty Yukon with five pennies clenched in her hand and a look of accomplishment on her face.  Saturday night was Clara's inauguration into the Milholland Family wages.  We don't give "allowance" to our kids but do have a list of chores for which they are paid a small wage each week.  At kindergarten you make 50 cents per week and then your pay escalates by a dollar per grade.  Our 7th grader, as an example makes $7 each week.

Wages are distributed in increments of 10% for tithe, 20% for savings and 70% for spending.  Clara's five pennies represented her first little offering to God.  This is the conversation that ensued between she and her younger sister, Carynne who's four.

"Clara, why are you holding that money?"

"I'm giving it to God."

"All of it?" she asked incredulously.

"No just a couple quarters or something."

"What does God do with it?  Does He give it to his wife, Mary?"

"Nah.  I think He uses it to help people or something."

This conversation tells me a couple of things:  1) Clara doesn't know the difference between a penny and a quarter,  2) Carynne quite logically thinks since God is Jesus' dad and Mary is His mother that they're married, and 3) Carynne thinks Scott gives me all His money.  Boy will she be surprised some day...

This little talk reminded me of my own misperceptions, especially some I've had about God.  In my early days as a Christian, I couldn't understand the intimacy some people seemed to have with Jesus.  I knew Jesus as my savior, but not my friend.

I was puzzled when I heard sayings like "you hunger and thirst for righteousness".  I didn't and I felt like I wasn't in the I Heart Jesus club.    In today's passage, the author gives the key I was missing. Intimacy with God is built one conversation at a time.

His heart longs for God like the deer pants for water.  His soul is thirsty and needs Living Water.  His thirst is quenched when he meets with God.

Jesus, thank you for Living Water.  It refreshes my soul and simultaneously gives me greater thirst.  Thank you for these sweet moments of quiet without husbands, kids or responsibilities.  Here where I meet with you, I get my "pant" on.

How has God built a longing in your heart for Him?