A Deeper Desire for Christ

"As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God." Psalm 42:1

Now man is new in relationship. He was an heir to wrath; he is now a child of God. He was a bondslave; he is now a freeman. He rejoices in Christ Jesus and feats to the full. He was the citizen of the earth once; he is now a citizen of heaven. He once found his all beneath the clouds, but now his all is beyond the stars. He has new relationships. Christ is his brother, God is his father, the angels are his friends, and the despised people of God are his best and nearest kinsfolk. And hence the man has new aspirations. He now pants to glorify God. What did he care about the glory of God once? he now pants to see God; once he would have paid the fate - if it had cost his life - that he might escape from the presence of the Lord. Now he hungers and thirsts after the living God; if his soul had wings and he could break the fetters of this mortality, he would mount at once to dwell where Jesus is. Dear friends, are you new men? If you are, you understand what it is; if you are not, I know I cannot explain it to you. To be born again is a great mystery; blessed is the soul that comprehends it! But he who does not know it will never learn it by the lip; he can only know it by the Spirit of God causing him also to be made a new creature in Christ Jesus.

By Charles Spurgeon, taken from "Daily Devotional Insights"