I need this soooooo bad!
Have you ever been deprived of something you depend on? We depend on water to renew our bodies, oxygen to keep our cells renewed, and a certain set of vitamins/minerals to help us stay strong. We depend on these things because they are essential to the health and well-being of our body. I remember wrestling with my brother as a kid and being 'deprived' of 'breath' a few times. He is actually eleven years older, so it was never really a "fair" wrestling match whenever we 'went at it', but I loved to be with him! He'd pin me down with his full body weight, tickling me until the tears came, and I would find myself laughing so hard that'd I almost felt like I'd lose my breath at any moment. I'd wriggle harder, trying to escape his clutch. He'd just tickle more! The end of those 'matches' left me so elated, but gasping for breath. I wasn't really being deprived of breath, but it was close!
Don't ever deprive me of truth, not ever—your commandments are what I depend on. Oh, I'll guard with my life what you've revealed to me, guard it now, guard it ever; and I'll stride freely through wide open spaces as I look for your truth and your wisdom; then I'll tell the world what I find, speak out boldly in public, unembarrassed. I cherish your commandments—oh, how I love them—relishing every fragment of your counsel. (Psalm 119:43-48)
I used to think this was like being deprived of air until I actually experienced the total loss of breath for about a minute one day on the softball field. I went up for a fly ball, landing flat on my back - causing the air to be pushed out of my lungs. The force of the blow sent my lungs into a "spasm" of sorts - sports players know this as getting the air knocked out of you. There I lay, struggling to take a breath in, panic beginning to rise with each seemingly never-ending second, pain coursing my body and fear building as I realized I could not take even one breath in. The coach said I was without air for about a minute or two, but not much more. It seemed like an eternity to me, though! Why did I think hours had passed when only minutes had? Why was my coach calm while my response was one of panic? Simply put - perspective! She was still breathing! I wasn't! I was experiencing the pain - she was "coaching" me through! What a difference it makes in how we "interpret" the circumstances based on the perspective we have within those circumstances!
We all depend on air. When we are deprived of it, our body sets off a series of responses designed to help us get air into our bodies. When we cannot manage that because of the circumstances, the adrenaline released begins to send us into that fight or flight response we sometimes equate with panic or struggle. God's truth (his Word) is something we need to learn to equate to much as we equate life to "breath" - so much so that we would not want to be deprived of it! When we learn to depend on it as much as we depend upon breath itself, we have come to the place we value it!
Deprivation is always equated with dependency. We won't feel deprived if we have never developed any dependency toward whatever it is we are dependent upon (or codependent upon). If you have never tasted chocolate, developing a "taste" for it, you won't feel deprived of it when it is not available to you.
Develop a dependency on God's Word and you will find you would guard against something "robbing" you of the regular intake of the Word - regardless of how large or small that thing might be. Not having God's Word to guide our steps, give us strength in times of immense struggle, or to build us up when we fail, it would be like depriving us of air itself. Babies are dependent upon their regular intake of a mother's milk for their development. If they are deprived of it long enough, what do they do? They cry out! Even if we see ourselves as "babes" just taking in God's Word, we want to experience a regular intake! Deprive us of that intake and we begin to feel the effects! It is not long before we begin to cry out! As we grow a little older in our Christian faith, developing the ability to take in "meat", we still depend upon the Word - we just don't need it so "digested" for us to enjoy its intake! Whether babes, toddlers, teen, or mature - we cannot be deprived of that which we need for life. If you take something in long enough, you become dependent upon it. It is in the development of the "habit" of turning to God's Word that we develop a dependency on the counsel contained there. Just sayin!
Don't ever deprive me of truth, not ever—your commandments are what I depend on. Oh, I'll guard with my life what you've revealed to me, guard it now, guard it ever; and I'll stride freely through wide open spaces as I look for your truth and your wisdom; then I'll tell the world what I find, speak out boldly in public, unembarrassed. I cherish your commandments—oh, how I love them—relishing every fragment of your counsel. (Psalm 119:43-48)
I used to think this was like being deprived of air until I actually experienced the total loss of breath for about a minute one day on the softball field. I went up for a fly ball, landing flat on my back - causing the air to be pushed out of my lungs. The force of the blow sent my lungs into a "spasm" of sorts - sports players know this as getting the air knocked out of you. There I lay, struggling to take a breath in, panic beginning to rise with each seemingly never-ending second, pain coursing my body and fear building as I realized I could not take even one breath in. The coach said I was without air for about a minute or two, but not much more. It seemed like an eternity to me, though! Why did I think hours had passed when only minutes had? Why was my coach calm while my response was one of panic? Simply put - perspective! She was still breathing! I wasn't! I was experiencing the pain - she was "coaching" me through! What a difference it makes in how we "interpret" the circumstances based on the perspective we have within those circumstances!
We all depend on air. When we are deprived of it, our body sets off a series of responses designed to help us get air into our bodies. When we cannot manage that because of the circumstances, the adrenaline released begins to send us into that fight or flight response we sometimes equate with panic or struggle. God's truth (his Word) is something we need to learn to equate to much as we equate life to "breath" - so much so that we would not want to be deprived of it! When we learn to depend on it as much as we depend upon breath itself, we have come to the place we value it!
Deprivation is always equated with dependency. We won't feel deprived if we have never developed any dependency toward whatever it is we are dependent upon (or codependent upon). If you have never tasted chocolate, developing a "taste" for it, you won't feel deprived of it when it is not available to you.
Develop a dependency on God's Word and you will find you would guard against something "robbing" you of the regular intake of the Word - regardless of how large or small that thing might be. Not having God's Word to guide our steps, give us strength in times of immense struggle, or to build us up when we fail, it would be like depriving us of air itself. Babies are dependent upon their regular intake of a mother's milk for their development. If they are deprived of it long enough, what do they do? They cry out! Even if we see ourselves as "babes" just taking in God's Word, we want to experience a regular intake! Deprive us of that intake and we begin to feel the effects! It is not long before we begin to cry out! As we grow a little older in our Christian faith, developing the ability to take in "meat", we still depend upon the Word - we just don't need it so "digested" for us to enjoy its intake! Whether babes, toddlers, teen, or mature - we cannot be deprived of that which we need for life. If you take something in long enough, you become dependent upon it. It is in the development of the "habit" of turning to God's Word that we develop a dependency on the counsel contained there. Just sayin!
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