Thirsting

"O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water."
--Psalm 63:1b

We need water to survive. I'm sure that's a newsflash for you. We need water to function as human beings, and we cannot physically take more than a few days without it before we perish. The consumption of water is more than a desire, it is a fundamental need. When you thirst, it's more than a silly impulse. It is your body telling you that the very foundation of life has run low. We need water. Without it, we will die.

This verse compares that thirst to the way we should seek God. Our soul should thirst for God, as a desert thirsts for water, always desperate for more. Seeking God is more than a passive activity and thought. It is an act of desperation. In a land where nothing truly satisfies, we earnestly seek out the Lord, we thirst for him as a dry land thirsts for water, for we know that His is the only water that will quench our thirst, and we know that once the process begins, it won't stop.

So, in my day to day living, do I act and think as though my soul is thirsting for God, never satisfied with the ordinary things of this world, or am I lukewarm about it all? Lukewarm isn't good. I am reminded of the verse in Revelations:

"I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm-neither hot nor cold-I am about to spit you out of my mouth."
--Revelation 3:15-16

Woah, doesn't sound like beating around the bush with following the Lord is really going to work for me. And, I suppose, that once you begin that process of truly thirsting for the Lord--craving Him, desiring wholly His word and plans, you are unable to stop. Because a certain peace comes with that as well. I never want to return to the life I used to live, I never want to be forever unsatisfied with everything. I am thirsting for God as a dry land thirsts for water but I am not left unhappy and unsatisfied.

Jesus is referred to as the "living water." Check out this chapter in John which talks about it.

"Jesus answered, 'Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 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.'"
--John 4:13-14

I could spend another day just on that passage alone. It is so true. When we partake of the "living water" that Christ provides, we no longer have to be satisfied. We no longer have to seek something that seems unattainable. Our thirst is quenched and satisfied even as a new thirst is renewed and intensified, the thirst to know God. But a sweeter more satisfying thirst there could not be.

I am going to partake of the Living Water, and I am going to continue to thirst to know God, as a dry land thirsts for water. For if I do those things, I will never have to be "thirsty" again.