~Psalm 42:1 As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God.

As you meditate on your relationship with God, can you speak the words in this Psalm and mean it?  Do you thirst after God with the same intensity as a deer would seek water after running through the woods?  Do you desire a close relationship with Him with such intensity?

When I was a child, I absolutely loved being with my parents.  I felt a sense of security when my Dad was home from work.  When he entered the house, it seemed as though nothing could harm me.  When I became a child of God, the day I was born-again, I felt this same sense of security.  I now had the same type of relationship with the Heavenly Father as I did with my own father.  The child of God can run to the Father with the same confidence and assurance as he would to his earthly father.  As we grow in Christ toward spiritual maturity through the convicting power of the Holy Spirit, we desire a closer fellowship with God than before.

Our hearts should pant/desire a closer relationship with God just as that deer desires a nice cool drink from the brook after an exhausting run through the forest.