Psalm 42 - "As The Deer"

Believers have a choice to make when times get tough. They can wallow in their misery or they can remember what God has done for them and will do for them in the days ahead. We can think about how He has given us strength or we can give into the weakness of flesh. Sometimes life becomes so overwhelming that we feel like we can't go on. Sometimes the circumstances we go through pull us so far down we start to believe there is no way life will ever be anything different. Those are lies from the devil. He wants to pull us away from God. He desires to make us believe God has left us. Psalm 42 is about how David began to feel like God had left him. He knew what life was like to have God but he also knew what it felt like when he pulled away from God. He lost his focus and he knew it. He also knew the way to get his focus back was to praise God (vs 5). He knew he had to think of the ways God had been with him in the past in order to get right again (vs 6). God takes our faith deeper through times such as what David was going through. "Deep calls to deep..." are some words that have great meaning to me. God called me to go deeper in my faith in 2015 when I went through nine months of not walking on my own. He called me to live in His presence in a whole new way. He gave me the desire of my heart to be "As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God" (vs 1). He gave me a greater desire to be who He desired of me to be. He made me realize the key to living as He desires is found in verse 11...

Why are you down in the dumps, dear soul?
    Why are you crying the blues?
Fix my eyes on God—
    soon I’ll be praising again.
He puts a smile on my face.
    He’s my God.

Yes! He put a smile back on my face and in my heart. He didn't do this when He healed me but He did this before. It didn't take Him allowing me to walk on my own again to give me back my joy. That happened a few months before when my focus went back on Him. I was given 20/20 vision once again through prayer, study of His word, meditation, etc. That was when the smile came back fully in my life. I do not ever want to lose it again. Instead I desire to go deeper in my faith and grow continually in the life He so desires of me.

Dear Jesus,
Thank You for the way You love on me so much! Thank You for your mercy and grace that enables me to stay focused on You! Thank You for cleansing me so You can fill me so people will see and hear You instead of me! Thank You for putting a smile back in my heart! Lord, give me opportunities today for people to see You are my Focus. May You go before me and make the way for my faith to be taken deeper. I pray for all believers to get to the point in their relationship with You to have this same desire. Thank You Jesus for being My 20/20! Amen.