Hunger and Thirst, Part 2
I want to discuss three aspects of hungering and thirsting for God:
- To know God
- To thirst for God
- To be close to God
To Know God
Philippians 3:8 (NIV) says:
What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ.
Note Paul's attitude. He goes on in verse 10 to say that he just wants to know Christ. Paul was willing to give up everything, and he considered it no big deal. He knew that the real loss would be to gain the world and lose Jesus.
To know God, we must hunger to know Him. Then, as we hunger for Him, we will seek Him, and He will be found.
And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart. Jeremiah 29:13 (KJV)
As we learn God's Word, we get to know God. As we spend time with Him through His Word, prayer, worship, seeking and waiting before Him, we will know God. We will find out that He is merciful, good, forgiving, just, giving, and so on. We will not only know Him through His Word and revelation, but through personal experience. As we believe and love Him, we experience who God is and what He is able to do for us. Our true pursuit in life is to know God. He will become our true delight.
To Thirst For God
Psalm 42:1-2 (NIV) says:
As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God.
My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?
Psalm 63:1-5 (NIV):
You, God, are my God, earnestly I seek you; I thirst for you, my whole being longs for you, in a dry and parched land where there is no water. I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory. Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you. I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name I will lift up my hands. I will be fully satisfied as with the richest of foods; with singing lips my mouth will praise you.
Those are such descriptive words. We must be as thirsty for God as the deer is for water. Then we will come and drink deep of His Word and His Spirit. Spending time in His Word, we drink of the living waters that satisfy and never run dry. Only the Spirit of God can quench our thirst. And the more we drink, the more we are filled. This is why it says in Ephesians 5:18 to be filled with the Spirit. The original Greek actually says "be being filled," which points to a continual filling. A good way to do this is to pray in the Spirit, speaking in tongues daily.
To Be Close To God
James 4:8 (NIV) states:
Come near to God and he will come near to you.
A good way to draw near to God is through worship, desiring to be with Him and experience His touch. We hunger and thirst for the manifest presence of God, to experience His closeness. In His presence, we find joy, peace, healing, and fulfillment. We were created to enter His presence, and when we do, our natural response will be to worship. We pour out our love on Him and our longing hearts find rest in His nearness. Once you experience such sweet fellowship in the presence of God, nothing else will satisfy or compare.
My friends, as we hunger and thirst for God, He will fill us to overflowing. Then, as we pour out on others what He has poured out on us, they, in turn, will hunger and thirst to be filled as well. So, keep pursuing, keep hungering and keep thirsting- for you shall be filled.
