Leaving the Desert

"O God, you are my God
earnestly I seek you;
my soul thirsts for you,
my body longs for you,
in a dry and weary land
where there is no water.

I have seen you in the sanctuary
and beheld your power and glory.
Because your love is better than life,
my lips will glorify you.
I will praise you as long as I live
and in your name I will lift up my hands."

(Psalm 63)

I love this Psalm. It speaks right to my heart. It's longing for the Lord, and yet triumphant - "I will praise you"!! There's something sweet about choosing to praise Him in a dry place. When we're feeling close to the heart of God, I think the only sane reaction is praise. But to choose it, when He seems far way, from a deep place of hope -- that's faith; that's loving God, where love is a verb, and not just a feeling.

Lord, thank you for using the desert time to turn my feelings about you into deep-seeded hope and conviction. And thank you for everything else you've taught me in this season that I haven't realized yet. But most of all, thank you for calling me out of it, and into something new!!