So I woke up this morning needing to write 5 extra credit essays for an 11:00am class. I told myself I would do it after devotion, yet somehow found myself at my desk typing up essays at 10:15am, not yet having done my devotions, and still in great need of a shower. I obviously didn't have time to read Isaiah as I had planned. Instead I decided on a Psalm, and I came across Psalm 63.

It say's "You, God, are my God, earnestly I seek you; I thirst for you, my whole being longs for you, in a dry and parched land where there is no water. I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory. Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you. I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name I will lift up my hands. I will be fully satisfied as with the richest of foods; with singing lips my mouth will praise you. On my bed I remember you; I think of you through the watches of the night. Because you are my help, I sing in the shadow of your wings. I cling to you; your right hand upholds me..."

I was especially convicted by the first image of being in a hot desert, where your body is giving out because of it's desire for water, yet still your thirst for is Christ. Doing this fast has definitely required me to ask myself whether I see God as capable of sustaining me both spiritually and physically. But I think the bigger question is, in the midst of thirst and hunger, in the midst of my body giving out, am I still able to say to Christ, "I thirst for YOU".

Is our hunger for Christ stronger than the physical hunger we've all been experiencing?

Are we fully satisfied with Christ "as with the richest of foods"?

These are questions that we should ask ourselves.

And if the answer comes up "no", the next step is to ask ourselves, "why"? What is it that we hunger for instead of Christ, even after we "have seen [Him] in the sanctuary and beheld [His] power and glory"? Why has this fast affected so many of our attitudes and bodies so much more than it has affected our hunger for Christ?

I would encourage you to think and pray about it. Don't get so caught up in praying for the generation that you forget to pray for your own growth. It's like the good book already say's, "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few". We need to be revived so that when He's looking for laborers to collect the harvest we're praying for, He knows that we are so hungry for Him that we will go where He leads, and do what He says do.

Blessings and peace during finals week,
Ashleigh