THIRST FOR GOD
1 AS THE DEER PANTS FOR THE WATER BROOKS, SO PANTS MY SOUL FOR YOU, O GOD.
2 MY SOUL THIRSTS FOR GOD, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?"
Psalm 42:1,2 (NKJV)
1 AS THE DEER LONGS FOR STREAMS OF WATER, SO I LONG FOR YOU, O GOD.
2 I THIRST FOR GOD, the living God. When can I go and stand before him?"
Psalm 42:1,2 (NLT)
People thirst for various things, even believers. Some people's thirst has nothing to do with God at all. All their thoughts centered on material things, the things of the world.
It might not be outrightly bad to thirst for material things, we need material things because we live in a material world; however, your thirst as a believer in Christ should primarily be on God (Colossians 3:1,2).
As a believer in Christ, it is your spiritual wellbeing, your good relationship and communion with God, that would bring about whatever you will get in the physical. So your thirst for God should be primary:
1 IF THEN YOU WERE RAISED WITH CHRIST, SEEK THOSE THINGS WHICH ARE ABOVE, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. 2 SET YOUR MIND ON THINGS ABOVE, NOT ON THINGS ON THE EARTH" (Colossians 3:1,2 NKJV).
What are you thirsting for?
The Psalmist in our text says he is thirsting for God, the living God (Psalm 42:2).
Some people, even some professed believers, are thirsting for worldly pleasures and sins (1 John 2:15-17).
If you are thirsting for God, you would not be ignored but be satisfied. God will reveal Himself to you, If you thirst for Him. Thirsting for God is equivalent to thirsting for righteousness and such who are doing that would be satisfied: "BLESSED ARE THOSE WHO HUNGER AND THIRST FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS, FOR THEY SHALL BE FILLED" (Matthew 5:6).
God will reveal Himself to you If you thirst for Him.
Thirsting for God
God created in humans, a hunger and thirst for Him (Ecclesiastes 12:13)..
Our thoughts and longings are meant to crave for God. He does want those who are His to know Him intimately.
Your thirst for God would be satistified through the knowledge of His Word. God cannot be known intimately without the knowledge of His Word.
Believers are meant to learn how to walk intimately with God through the study of His Word. We have the record of those who have walked with God in the Bible, those who succeed in their walk with Him as well as those who failed (Romans 15:4; 1 Corinthians 10:11).
Things God likes and what He does not like can be learnt through the study of the lives of the people who walked with Him in the Bible (Romans 15:4).
Thus, thirst or desire for God is satisfied through the understanding of the Word of God, the Bible. God is found through His Word.
Do not be concerned or carried away with your challenges or problems by trying to fix them or looking for solutions where there is no one, they should move you closer to God—shift your gaze to be on Him—and not move you away from Him, God.
God's thoughts and His characters are found on the pages of the Bible.
God is not found anywhere else, and the solutions to man's problems are found on the pages of the Bible.
Know that God's ways or patterns are not the same with that of man, human (Isaiah 55:8).
God's ways or manners are strange to the unsaved, those who are still being controlled by their human fallen nature (Romans 8:5-8).
In other to be acquainted with God's ways, you have to be a student of the Word of God, the Bible. God will reveal Himself to you through His Word!
The Holy Spirit is given to God's children, believers, those who have accepted Jesus as their Saviour and Lord (John 3:6; 14:16-18,26).
The Holy Spirit will open your understanding and expatiate the Bible to you (John 14:26).
Having enabled you to understand the Bible, He, the Holy Spirit, would also help or enable you to pray according to the mind of the Father, God (Romans 8:26).
The Holy Spirit is the believers' Helper or Companion; He will teach and guide you in all the affairs of life (John 14:26; 16:13-15; Romans 8:14; 1 Corinthians 2:10-13).
A triumphant Christian living in the world is through the knowledge of the Word of God, the Bible, and being intimate with God through the Holy Spirit.
Thirst for sin, worldly pleasures, and power amounted to nothing (1 John 2:15-17). Sin would destroy and seperate you from God, your Creator.
Endeavour to satisfy the secret desire or longing in your earth to serve God, be completely yielded to Him. This is one thing that no man or human can help you to do.
God is calling you to Himself (Matthew 11:29; Revelation 3:20). He wants to fix your life. Thus, do not postpone the day of salvation If you are not reborn yet (2 Corinthians 6:1,2).
If you had the thought that you would serve God after you have made it, become rich and comfortable and old, but such thought is a devil's deception.
How are you sure you would be here for long? Thus, satisfy the secret craving in your heart to serve God, stop postponing your salvation.
Whoever had the thought that he or she would embrace Christ Jesus for salvation their souls at the old age, after being successful. The devil would not want to allow the person to reach the age which he or she had the thought to embrace Christ Jesus.
Why struggling when you have a help in God!
Peace.