Reasons For Drying Out

Reasons For Drying Out

Tuesday, May 3, 2016

10:26 AM

We have in this Psalm an interesting confession and prayer. It was possible written while David who was king at the time was fleeing from his son Absalom. I find it amazing that David did not quit singing even if he sang a sad song, even if he was on the run. In this first verse we find a prayer of desperation, a confession of faith, and a possession of need. It has been my experience that you cannot get very far with someone until they see their need first. David certainly recognizes a need when he prays, "My soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is;…" Now it seems that David understood this need was real, was at a dangerous level, and was fixable. I don't know about you but I see a correlation between this verse and where we are today. Perhaps we are not on the run from Absalom, but we are whether we recognize it or not on the run from one who would take away our position in Christ, cause us to lose our crown. We are being chased by one who is out to steal, kill and destroy. While David was running for his life and the preservation of his office, he recognized there was so much more going on, there was a spiritual famine of God's presence. He confesses that he is thirsty, that his flesh longed for God because he was in a dry and thirsty land, where no water was.

As I scope out the spiritual landscape around us I notice that we too are in a spiritual famine, the bleached bones of many lie wasted away in the sands of time we are desperately longing for and praying for God. Now I want to dwell tonight on what makes a spiritual famine, focusing on three reasons God's people dry out.

The Condition

Too much heat (Friction)

James 4:1-4 (KJV)

1 From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?

2 Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not.

3 Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.

4 Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.

Margaret Allen tax accountant told the story several years ago that she met with an old farmer who had owned and used a particular tractor and implement for I believer over 40 years. She asked him how he managed to use it for that long, he told her it took lots of oil.

Too much cold (Freezing)

Matthew 24:12 (KJV)

12 And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.

I remember one time in MO that it was so dry during winter time, that even though the radar and weather equipment showed that it was snowing, it was too cold and dry for it to actually be seen. As I look around us I see this condition around us.

Lack of Moisture (Famine)

Psalm 63:1 O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is;

The Cure

Isaiah 44:3 (KJV)

3 For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground: I will pour my spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring: