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Thirsting for God

Many Churches around the world have sung, in worship, the song “As the Deer.” This song reflects the words of Psalm 42:1-2, that reads, “As the deer longs for streams of water, so I long for you, O God. I thirst for God, the living God." 

In the song, we sing the words, “I love you more than any other, so much more than anything.” So, with those thoughts combined, I must take an honest assessment and ask “do I really thirst for the living God?” “Do I really want him more than anything in this world or love him more than anybody I love?”

We must take “spiritual inventory” and be candid and honest to see if our level of intimacy with Jesus and our depth of relationship with God is at the proper level of “thirsting” and “longing.” That is, do we really crave and yearn for our time with God? Do we want to love him, seek him, serve him, obey him and worship him?

I am not talking about just “a devotional time” with God where I read a short Scripture passage and then read a short writing (such as “Our Daily Bread” devotional booklet), but intimate, intentional fellowship with him that results in unhindered moments of adoration, worship, praise, thanksgiving, intercession for others and awe-inspired silence.

The deer, in the song and Scripture, is panting due to extreme thirst and is showing outward, physical signs of its intense need as it desperately wants the water and has nothing more on its mind. Its passion is to “seek and find” the water.

Does that sound like you? Yes? No? Have you advanced in your faith-walk to the point where your love for God is so deep that you simply can’t wait to spend “alone time” with Him? Has your relationship with God grown so deeply that your time with him is now the greatest priority of your day? Have you gotten to the point where God has become interwoven within every aspect of your daily routine, life, work, leisure, and the core of your very being? Has it finally reached the point that worship just on Sunday isn't enough?

God has put a thirst for himself into every person. I pray that we understand that this “thirst” is a sincere desire for God to be involved in every aspect of our lives. My relationship with God should affect every facet of my existence. Everything. 

That means, my relationship I have with God will shape how I conduct myself (in good and bad situations), how I dress, talk, treat others…my work ethic, types of TV/Movies I watch, choices of entertainment and leisure activities, books, music, people I hang out with…things I do and how I conduct myself when away on vacation or business trips….that’s just to name a few, but you get it….everything is just that; everything!

Bottom line is that God must be our all and nothing less. He must be a part of all that we are and all that we do. He cannot be an afterthought, kept in privacy, or treated as if he is just a “Sunday-only deity.”

I hope everything associated with your life and how you live that life (daily) includes God to the point that it awakens within your soul a continuous, life-long craving for intimate fellowship with the living God. Are you thirsting for God? Jesus said, in John 7:37, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink.”











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