Longing For God

As a deer longs for streams of water, so I long for You, God. I thirst for God, the living God. When can I come and appear before God? (Ps. 42:1-2)(HCSB)

Have you ever been thirsty? I mean really thirsty, like you feel as if you might keel over at any moment if you don't get a nice, long, cool drink of water? I've never been marooned in a remote desert without water or come even remotely close to dying of thirst, but there have been some times when I felt like that was the case. When I was just a wee lad (that's when I was a young boy), I loved playing baseball. I remember many times playing ball in the heat of summer with the sun beating down, how I would finish up an extremely long afternoon of practice (say maybe all of a couple of hours), and then hurry to the water cooler for a big drink. Man, water never tasted so good! It's funny how I would normally shun water for some Kool-Aid or a Dr. Pepper, but when I was really thirsty nothing could hit the spot like water. Well, okay, maybe Gatorade did. But the point is, when we're really thirsty, we've got to have a drink. And we will go searching for that refreshing liquid in order to satisfy our thirst.

You know, God wants us to thirst for Him like that. He wants us to have a continuing longing in our soul that only He will satisfy as a cool drink quenches our dry, parched throats. Usually when I read Psalm 42:1-2 I think of the popular worship song, "As the Deer", by Martin Nystrom. Let's look at the opening lyrics to the song which is inspired by the scripture verses above:

As the deer panteth for the water
so my soul longeth after Thee
You alone are my heart's desire
and I long to worship Thee

You alone are my heart's desire....Is your heart desiring God alone? Is your soul longing for the Lord, yearning to spend more time in His Word? Are you thirsting for a deeper walk with God and a more meaningful worship experience with Him? If you are, Jesus wants to quench that thirst for you. Look at these scriptures that point us at God's desire to satisfy our thirst:

Isa. 55:11--Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters...(NIV)
Jn. 4:14--(Jesus speaking) But whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life. (NIV)
Jn. 7:37-38--(Jesus speaking) If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him. (NIV)

So we know that God doesn't want us to remain thirsty, but He wants to satisfy our thirst. In fact, He says He will give us "living water" (Jn. 4:10). We need to continually thirst for the living God as the psalmist proclaims in Ps. 42:1-2 in the sense that we have an ongoing, ever-growing yearning and desire for fellowship with Him. And as the deer longs for a cool drink of water, we're always to be in search of those refreshing times of prayer, the study of His Word, and those moments in worship of the One who sits on the throne and gives us living water whereby we'll never thirst again. (Jn. 4:14 & Rev. 7:15-17)

Singing His Praises,
Joey C.