The hart pants after the water brooks because only there will he find life.

The message burning in his brain is, “Seek water, and on finding it, you shall live.”

Those who pant after God have the same promise, given often in the Scriptures. Here is one of them:

“For thus saith the LORD unto the house of Israel, Seek ye me, and ye shall live” (Amos 5:4).

Alas for the hart, he might pant and seek…and still die.

But those who seek God find Him!

“Blessed are they that keep his testimonies, and that seek him with the whole heart” (Psalm 119:2).

“But if from thence thou shalt seek the LORD thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul” (Deuteronomy 4:29).

“And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart” (Jeremiah 29:13).

Oh the love, mercy, longsuffering, and grace of God!

He tries so hard to draw humans to Himself.

Sometimes He even afflicts them.

“And I also have given you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and want of bread in all your places: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the LORD” (Amos 4:6).

In our day, we associate cleanness of teeth with good hygiene and oral care. But the context of this verse leads me to believe that God is talking about famine, hunger, and starvation. Their teeth were clean because they had nothing to eat!

That wasn’t the only affliction God sent their way. The rest of the chapter mentions four others, each time concluding with that same lament: “yet have ye not returned unto me.”

Does every affliction I encounter mean I have wandered from God and He is trying to bring me back to Himself?

No. The lives of Job and Joseph ought to dispel that notion.

But it does seem to me that every “negative” in my life ought to turn my thoughts toward God.