Introduction

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

This is verse that this devotional blog is built upon. It is such a powerful verse in the few 16 words that it holds. The writer of this psalm is telling of his understanding that a deer can not survive without drinking water in the same way that the author can not survive without the presence of God in his life. It is impossible for a deer to survive without water, and as followers of Christ, it is impossible to survive spiritually without the presence of God in our lives.

But what happens to a deer when he goes without water? Obviously the deer does not go without water  and then drop dead one day, there has to be a process. When a deer goes without water, it gets dehydrated. Okay, So what? Well this dehydration in a deers body has a process as well. There are 3 steps in the dehydration of a deer. These steps directly correlate to followers of Christ when we go without spending time with God.

The first thing that happens to a deer when it goes without drinking water: Loss of Focus. The deer has trouble focusing. It cannot run away from lions, or other predators as well as it could with water in it's system. His focus begins to crumble before him. In the same way, without the presence of God in our lives, we begin to lose our focus. Our attention and our desires advert from God, and begin focusing on everything but God. We have trouble fighting off temptations, because our focus isn't on God! We haven't been spending time with God, so how can we expect ourselves to obey him?

The second thing that happens to a deer when it goes without drinking water: It's Walk Is Affected. The lack of water began by just affecting the mind of the deer, but as the deer went on without getting hydrated, the lack of the much needed water begins to change the way the deer walks. At first, you could not tell a difference between a hydrated deer and a dehydrated deer. In stage one, it was just in the mind, but as we move on to stage 2, the fact that the deer is dehydrated is not hidden in his mind any longer. It is obvious that something is going on with this deer, his walk is changing! In the same way, as followers of Christ, when we go so far along without spending time with God and dwelling in his presence, our walk with God begins to change. At first, no one noticed because it was in your mind. Your focus was dying out, but no one can see into your mind except for God, and so many times we do not care about what God can see. We rely upon cheap grace: "I'll just ask for forgiveness later." But when we continue to go on without spending time with God, it is no longer just our mind, but our walk with God begins to change. People can see a difference. They can tell that we are not living as on fire for God as we once was. You see, in stage one, that was just our private life that was changing. But in stage 2, our public life is changing as well. Where the mind goes, the man will follow. We find ourselves sinning in private: looking at porn, lying, gossiping, going back to our homosexual thoughts, finding everything we wish we had, sex outside of marriage, lusting, anger begins to take over again, all of these things we once had given up to Jesus and laid them down at the cross begin to crawl back into our lives. It's a slow fade. The enemy wants to destroy your integrity.

There is a man in the Bible that had extraordinary integrity. Job. You can find his story in the book of Job. He was very wealthy, had many kids, thousands of cattle and animals, hundreds of people working for him, a lot of property... He was living the life. The Bible also describes him as being "blameless, and walking upright". But something happened to Job that would forever change his life. In one day, everything that he owned was taken from him. Every one of his animals died, his kids were killed when his house collapsed on them, his wife told him to curse God and die, his best friends came out him with accusation after accusation, and on top of all of this, his body was covered in painful boils and sores. The Bible tells us that despite all of this, he never once blamed God. The Word of God says that he "Held on tight" to his integrity. He clung to it! This phrase used, "held on tight" reminds me of another story in the Bible. In 2 Kings 23, we read of all of the incredible and mighty warriors in Israel. One man is name Eleazar. He fought hour after hour, kill after kill, cut after cut, for so long and so hard, that after the battle was over he tried to drop his sword and couldn't! His hand was stuck to the sword! Now you might be wondering why I am sharing this with you, but think about it: why did he hold onto his sword for so long? Because he knew that this was the only thing keeping him alive! Without this sword, he would have died. He held onto it for so long and so tight, that the sword almost became apart of him! He couldn't let go even when he wanted to! Job held onto his integrity because he knew it was the only thing keeping him alive spiritually! Without his integrity, he would've blamed God, he would've cursed God and died. But his integrity, his faithfulness to God, kept him together! As followers of Christ, we need this same intensity in our relationship with God, with out devotion to Him and our integrity. We must hold onto it for so long and hold it so tight that it becomes a part of us! We can't let go of it even if we wanted to! Our integrity is what keeps us serving God even in private. It is what draws us to the presence of God. We must have the presence of God in our lives!

The third thing that happens to a deer when it goes without drinking water: A Crude Smell Protrudes From the Deer's Pores. The water that the deer usually drinks gets the bad bacterias and wastes out of the deers body, but when it goes without this water, there is nothing to wash these bad materials out. Because of this, these bacteria and wastes build up and form a stench in the deers body. This stench rises out of the pores and goes into the air. Now, this smell is very distinct to lions and predators. They go around just sniffing the air, waiting to catch a sniff of this smell. Why? Because they know what that smells leads them too. That smell will lead them directly to a dehydrated deer. Directly to a deer that has lost it's focus. Directly to a deer that's walk has been changed, directly to an easy meal. As you have already figured out the comparisons here, this is us when we do not spend time with God. We go so long with spending time in his presence that we lose our focus. We continue on without him and our walk begins to change because of sin, until finally we begin to stink spiritually. We give off a stench to everyone we come into contact with. On top of that, we attract the enemy. 1 Peter 5:8 tells us that the enemy Prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. The enemy just walks around waiting to catch this stench, lurking around just waiting... He knows that this smell will lead him directly to a dehydrated "Christian" who hasn't spent time with their creator. A "christian" who has lost his focus on God, whose walk with God has come to halt because of sin. It will lead him to an easy meal. He knows that all he has to do is pounce, and the world will come crashing down around that spiritually dehydrated follower of Christ.

On top of all of this, when we get to this point that we give off this spiritual stench, you can read all throughout scripture how we give up a smell to God with our worship. First, let us define worship. Worship is how you live your life. What you think on, say, do, etc. Worship is how you live. Imagine how the creator of the world is waiting in heaven for an aroma of praise from us, but instead, this awful smell begins to fill his nostrils. How we live sends up a disgusting smell. We are sending up a stench to the one who gave up his only son for us. The son that came down from a holy and perfect and flawless throne in heaven to be bruised, beaten, mocked, scourged, crucified in this dying world. The one who was tied up and place on a post to be beat with a whip for being perfect. And we send up a stench to him. The One that took these whips on his back. These whips that pieces of metal and bone at the end of each thick, wet, piece of leather. These whips that would drive into his holy flesh with high velocity from the strength of these huge roman soldiers using all of their might to drive the sharp ends into his body. These whips would find their marks not just on his back, but would wrap around and find their mark on his stomach, and chest, his thighs, and even his face. These whips would bury themselves in his flesh until the soldiers would yank the whip out of his beaten body, bringing huge chunks of flesh with it. And we are sending a stench up to him... The Man that wore a crown of thorns that dug down deep into his skull. And we are sending a stench up to him... The Man that carried his own cross, the hundred or so pound cross on his shoulder up a dusty, rocky hill. This dust filling the holes, cuts, slashes, missing flesh on his body. Can you imagine the pain of the dust covering his beaten body? And we send a stench up to him... The Man that was laid down on a piece of wood like a lamb being led to the slaughter, nailed to this piece of wood that he created in the beginning of time, nailed to it, and raised up high to be mocked at by everyone there. And we have the audacity to send a stench up to him... The Man that had to pull his body up by the nails in his wrist just to take a breath of hair. My Savior. My King. And I would dare send a stench up to him. A stench caused by just not spending time with him!

As a deer cannot survive without water, neither can I survive without your presence in my life, my God.

This blog is built upon this. I refuse to send up a stench to my God, the Great I Am. I have been in that place before, spiritually stinking with my avalanche of sin I was buried in. Buried and still refusing to spend time with him. I can not imagine the pain that I must have caused my God. I refuse to let that happen ever again. I will spend time with him daily. Finding myself in the Word of God every single day. Talking and listening to him every single day. Laying down the pleasures of this world and fasting. I will live a hydrated life. I encourage you to walk this journey with me. Do not send a stench up to our Father, Creator, Savior any longer.

"As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God."

Follow Me On Twitter