That word can mean early in the day or it can mean early at a task and with earnest desire. If I awakened my kids early in the morning with, “Hey, someone dropped off a gift for you all during the night!” they would satisfy both definitions of that word. They would bound down the steps early and eagerly. The truth is, God says this every day to us.
He whispers into our souls, “Come into the family room with your Bible and listen to me as you read and see what treasures I have prepared for you.” Most just grunt, turn over on their sheets, and chase a restful sleep again.
Some of you men reading this will remember what it was like when you first fell in love with your wife. Your soul thirsted and your flesh longed.
You could not wait to be with her, and every minute you were apart seemed like an eternity.
We understand that when it comes to loving a person, but can we really learn to love God that way? Yes. In fact, it should be the normal state of the Christian, not the wild-eyed fanatical exception.
OK, you ask, how do I get there? Well, it starts with the obvious: You come to the Father only through the Son.
You must have a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. But, Christians can dry up, too. How can we stay passionate for God?
David wrote, “So I have looked for You in the sanctuary.” David penned this Psalm in the wilderness, and to get his heart into worship mode, he remembered the times of worship he had enjoyed with his fellow believers in the sanctuary.
A church can meet under a banyan tree, like some churches in Africa, or in the most well-appointed auditorium.
The point is not the edifice but the edification, the building up of the people of God and the glory given to God when his people come together in his name and hear his Word preached.
Why do we need to be together like this every Sunday?
Why is our corporate worship so important? Because it is there every Sunday that we go hard after God as we look for him in the Word and we look at him in the songs and our hearts are trained to trust him and to praise him and to be satisfied in him. My dear readers who say, “I don’t need the church” either do not know what the Bible plainly teaches on this, or have simply and willfully rejected it. If you do not long for these times together with the local church on Sundays, then I would exhort you with the authority of God’s Word that you are in danger of your soul drying up altogether. You may not be thirsty because you are beyond dehydration. You may not be hungry because you are beyond starvation. Those who stop eating eventually don’t want to eat and, indeed, cannot eat. Make your soul hungry by feeding your soul.