19 Dec 2013 by Mindy Oon CM-
Pr Rudy Chew from Kingdom City Church shared ‘What’s Your Water Level?’ at Full Gospel Assembly Ipoh’s young adults service on the 14th of December.
Verse 1 to verse 5 of Psalms 42 says:
‘As the deer longs for streams of water, so I long for you, O God. I thirst for God, the living God. When can I go and stand before him? Day and night I have only tears for food, while my enemies continually taunt me, saying, “Where is this God of yours?” My heart is breaking as I remember how it used to be: I walked among the crowds of worshipers, leading a great procession to the house of God, singing for joy and giving thanks amid the sound of a great celebration! Why am I discouraged? Why is my heart so sad? I will put hope in God! I will praise him again – my Savior and my God!”
In the first part of Psalm 42, the psalmist describes how he thirsts for the Lord as the deer thirsts for steams of water. He then goes on to describe his discouragement, and compares his present to his past. This is something that we often do, and most, if not all of us have felt discouragement at some point in our lives. While we may go for holidays and take breaks from work and/or ministry to ‘relax’ and ‘rejuvenate’, we sometimes find that we are still discouraged and even more tired when we come back from our holiday! This may be due to our ‘low water level’ – we have not been drinking from the steam of life and have not been spending time in the presence of God.
Physically, up to 75% of our body’s weight is made up of water; and when we lose only 2% of our water volume, we will experience thirst and discomfort, possible loss of appetite, dry skin and possible constipation. Symptoms become more severe with greater water loss. Respiration rates increase, blood pressure decreases, and body temperature increases. When we lose around 5% to 6% of water, we may become sleep, have headaches and nausea, and may feel tingling in our arms and legs. With 10% to 15% fluid loss, we may experience muscle spasms, our skin shrivels and wrinkles, our vision may dim and urination will be greatly reduces and sometimes painful. It is in this stage that delirium may also begin. Water volume loss of more than 15% is usually fatal.
Spiritually too, we may be experiencing dehydration. We may be feeling discouraged, aimless, and sad. We may feel that something is amiss, and that there is just something wrong somewhere. We try all sorts of things to overcome this feeling – we go out with our friends, we work harder, we play harder, we go for holidays to relax; but nothing seems to work. As spiritual beings, we need to draw our strength and ‘increase our water levels’ by spending time with our God. As the Psalmist says in Psalm 42, He will put his hope in God, we too need to put our hope in God, surrender our worries to Him, and just drink from Him!
As this is the holiday season most of us may be going for a trip somewhere to unwind, have fun and reflect on our year. This year, why not bring along your Bibles, and set aside some time for God during the trip and learn to really ‘relax’ and drink from Him? Refresh yourself in His presence for the new year!
References for pictures:
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