The Oasis

           We learned in school years ago about an “oasis.” I have never been to one nor have I ever seen an oasis in our country. From what I have been told, it is a place where water can be found even in the middle of a parched desert. You know that the task of putting up hay usually comes in the summer time when the temperatures are so hot you cold fry an egg on the hood of the tractor. You go out to the field and your body seems to lose all of its liquid in sweat and as soon as you get the load of hay on the wagon and head for the barn, one of the first stops is the “horse tank.” You can lay down in the horse tank but getting the cold water from the windmill is all you need. I would let it run down my arms from the elbows to the tips of my fingers and then drink until I could drink no more. That's closest thing I ever came to that was like an oasis. Psalm 42:1-2 says, “As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God?”

        Deer, among most other animals, like to come to a place of cool, running water. They need it to survive and it is always a place of refreshment for them. The Psalmist make a vivid comparison between a thirsty deer and a believer. We have been told that you can go without food for about three weeks but you can only go three days without water. Now, compare your craving for water with your craving for God. How long can you go without having a drink of water and how long can you go without the spiritual water from God's Word? How long can you go without having to come to God for spiritual matters? You may have heard the little expression, “Seven days without God makes one weak.” It is a play on words but the point is rather accurate. A deer would be weak without having any water for seven days. In the same comparison, a believer is will also become weak after going seven days without any contact with God. For some believers, that is the extent of their spiritual refreshment. They may come to church one day a week and then try to get all gassed up for the coming week only to find that they run into difficulties around Wednesday or Thursday because of a lack of spiritual refreshment. Humanly speaking, we probably came up with the Wednesday evening service to try to get people refueled knowing that a person cannot go past three days without water. That's putting it right on the border of a spiritual crisis every week. Going back to the “hart” or the “deer” remember that he craves the water so we should be craving or panting after a time of refreshment with God. Harry Ironside wrote a daily devotional book called the “Continual Burnt Offering.” It was meant to be used every day. You may be a person who has never missed a Sunday service and still wonder why you are not growing as you should. It should seem logical that when you spend one day with God and seven days without God that your growth is just a tad stunted to say the least. Since God's Word is for our edification and teaches us how to know God and to have a relationship with Him, then we should take heed to the lesson of the “hart.” When was the last time you “panted” after God? Do you pant after God when there is no catastrophe in your life, or do you wait for the heart attack, the sudden loss of a loved one or an unexpected sickness to draw your attention to God? Songwriters have written songs with titles like, “I Need Thee Every Hour” and “Moment by Moment” and “Day by Day.” In other words, we need God with every breath we take. There is not a moment when we don't need God. So, Praise God today as waits for you to come to Him as the deer pants after the water brook.