Daily Devotion for March 24, 2025

Devotion:

For an audio version of this devotion, click here.

Read Psalm 42:1-2.

The psalmist is feeling separated from God, and the desire to find and commune with God is an overwhelming and consuming one. Don’t you love the imagery of a deer on a hot summer day, perhaps after having run from and escaped a predator, panting for a drink of cool water? That deer will search until it finds a stream, or it will perish. In a similar way, the psalmist’s soul thirsts for God.

All of us go through times when God seems distant, and we are out of touch. It may happen after a crisis or loss in our lives or at other times. When we moved to Chattanooga, I put one of my Bibles in my briefcase instead of packing it in boxes with all the other books in my study. It was comforting, when we arrived and before all the boxes were unpacked, to open my Bible and read. We began attending UM churches and looking for our new church home. My job was new, the children were in a new school, and we were in a new house and neighborhood. Too much had changed at once, and God seemed so very far away! Then God showed up in worship one Sunday morning in the sancti-gym at Christ Church. I think God had been looking for me the whole time!   

 

Personal Worship Option:

Are you feeling a bit isolated from God now? Pray for God’s presence to become more real to you. During this season of Lent, I am praying for a closer, more personal relationship with God through Christ. I invite you to do that as well. I think God wants that too!