Today's Passage - Psalm 42:2

River of Life Christian Church ︳www.rolcc.net/english Psalm 42:2   My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.  When can I go and meet with God?     Brothers and sisters, do your hearts thirst for God? Sometimes your heart might be thirsty, but what you thirst for might not be God Himself. Very often we're just hoping that our problems might be solved and we will go back to living a "normal" life. After our problems are solved, we simply go to the Lord and say: "Lord, thank you, and now we can go our separate ways, see you next time!" This is precisely why Christian life is often moving from one crisis to the next. We neglect God's will in us and we treat God like the genie in Aladdin's lamp. When we have problems, we rub the lamp and what to get our problems solved. It is God's will for Christ to take shape in our life and to let Christ become the glorious hope in our heart.   Those from the West often evaluate a faith by whether it is reasonable. Therefore, they like to debate about faith and they end up limited by rationalism.  Those from the East often evaluate a faith by whether it works, so they end up bound by utilitarianism. The Bible, however, focuses on a loving relationship and a life connection between us and God. People often use their heart to solve problems, but God often use problems to train our hearts. Therefore, God often wants us to learn to wait for Him. When Moses was on Mount Sinai, he fasted and prayed for 40 days and nights, and then God spoke to him. According to our current pace of life, there's no way we'd wait for so long; however, when we are waiting, God will discipline us. Not only will God increase our faith, He also wants us to remove any impurity inside from wanting to depend on ourselves. God wants to help us to ensure that Christ will form in us. We often want to rush to see the outcome, but the reality is all things are in God's hand. God can easily accomplish anything, but God values whether our eyes are set on Him and whether we would go seek Him and have a relationship with Him.   There was a brother who worked in a record store, and his job was to examine the records to make sure that the original records are free of defect or noise. Many people are jealous of him because he gets to use the best stereo system to listen to the best music; he, however, said that in all these years he's only been paying attention to whether there's noise. He heard all kinds of noise, but not the beauty of the music that was playing. Brothers and sisters, are we like that sometimes? Our hearts are filled with all kinds of spiritual noise so that we can't hear the voice of God. May the Lord have mercy on us, once again give us a spirit of eagerness in our hearts!   Pray with Pastor Tong          Lord, please give us a spirit that longs for you. Let us once again be thirsty for you, but not thirsty for things of the world. Let us be committed to come before you to seek you, and worship you alone. I thank you and I pray in the victorious name of Jesus, amen!