We can be thirsty for God, but struggle to connect in different seasons of our spiritual walk. It’s also easy to compare ourselves to that friend who seems to have an internal longing for God that we lack.
Do you ever wish your heart deeply longed for time with Jesus, but find yourself doing daily devotions just so you can check them off a list? Me too!
I often wish I wanted God the way Psalm 42:1-2 describes:
As a deer pants for flowing streams,
so pants my soul for you, O God.
My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
When shall I come and appear before God?” (ESV)
Yet, in times where my soul does not feel thirsty for God, I wonder if it’s possible to regain my desire. Fortunately, the author of this Psalm not only shows us what spiritual thirst looks like, but he also gives us simple ways to cultivate our thirst for God!
How to want God more
1. Admit your desperate need for Jesus.
Deer in the desert know their very life depends on water. They know all the water sources available to them and frequent those places regularly.
Yet, in contrast, we often treat God like an optional menu item, rather than our only life-giving sustenance. We assign Him a role in the margins of our lives so that we can gain the benefits from His presence.
The Sons of Korah, who wrote this Psalm, admitted their desperate need for God. They saw a direct link between their spiritual thirst and their recognition of their need for God’s presence.
My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?” (v. 2b, ESV).
If we want to desire Jesus, we must start by recognizing our desperate need. We need Him in order to thrive, just as our bodies need water to survive.
2. Your emotions are a spiritual thirst indicator.
Have you seen how your emotions function as a signal that you need Jesus?
Today, this signal sounded in my soul while I was angrily folding laundry. Fear of failure and relational fall-out clutched at my heart, while hot tears spilled down my cheeks. I couldn’t shake the feeling of anger at being disrespected. Then, in the middle of the piles of laundry, I remembered this Psalm’s description of overwhelming emotions.
“My tears have been my food day and night” (v. 3a, ESV).
Many view strong emotions as a problem to be solved before connection with God can be renewed. When people saw the Psalmist’s broken-heart, they asked derisively, “Where is your God?” (v. 3b). As though grief, pain, and anguish cannot exist alongside God’s presence in this world.
However, God chose a man to write this Psalm who was not currently active in his position of spiritual leadership (we don’t know why). Once upon a time, this man lead others in fervent worship, pointing their souls to God (v. 4). Now, he seems to feel like an outcast in the worship gathering, where others cannot fathom how the depths of his despair actually call him back to God.
Your strong emotions are a fantastic “thirst indicator.” They reveal what we really want in any given circumstance (cf. James 4:1-2). In my case, I longed for support, recognition, and connection on a human level.
Though our flesh craves all things under the sun, our thirst can only be quenched by Jesus (John 4). We must use our strong emotions to point us past the upset of the moment, to the desperate need of our souls.
3. Our self-talk will increase our thirst, or squelch it.
Have you noticed what you say to yourself impacts your day?
I know when I tell myself, “I hate cleaning the kitchen, this is the most disgusting, WORST chore in the house,” then my attitude will continue to stink along with the rancid leftovers buried in the fridge.
In contrast, Psalm 42 describes the kind of self-talk we need to bolster our spiritual thirst.
Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God.” (Psalm 42:5, ESV)
Allow your strong emotions to exist alongside your relationship with God. Our emotions are not the enemy, though they often are bearers of bad news. The bad news may be that we are hiding idols in our hearts. But, we likely also have legitimate hurt or trauma to grieve.
Evaluate the information they bring you. What are you wanting? Where are you hurting? For what does your soul ache? Bring these questions to Jesus, allow Him to walk with you through the pain and to bring His cleansing.
As an enneagram type 8, choleric, type-A personality, I tend to drive through things. Pain? I’ll just keep going. My heart is broken? Suck it up, there is too much to be done.
Don’t be like me, pushing strong emotions aside too quickly.
God uses the events of our days to reveal broken places He intends to mend. Let Him show you where those broken places are. Sit in the discomfort long enough for healing to begin. Then sit some more.
And while you are sitting, instruct your soul on where to find hope. Do not set your hope on pain ending or circumstances changing. Hope in God! This is not the whimsical hope of birthdays where we wish our desires to be fulfilled. Hoping in God requires us to set our wills on waiting for His work and His timing.
We look forward with anticipation because, in the end, we get unfettered fellowship with God. All in creation will once again be set right, and the longing for Eden in our hearts will be satisfied. Not because pain, suffering, disease, conflict, and sin will be no more (and they will!), but because every longing we feel today will be answered and swallowed up in Life.
Today, sin tells us that things of this life will satisfy that ache. We chase those things gladly finding distraction and euphoria in their arms. Yet, our hearts’ ache to renew the union with God for which we were created. We cannot understand what this means or feels like, so sin twists this ache into desires that place things higher than God in our souls.
So, lean into your strong-emotions. As God works in the deep places of your soul, your spiritual thirst will increase as He gives us a taste of Eden in our fellowship with Jesus.
4. Communicate with God.
I love the Psalms because they are SO honest about their emotions (vv. 6 & 9). The authors didn’t get the memo to show up to church on Sunday hiding all the difficulties of their week. They refuse to answer every “How are you?” with a grin and the appropriate “Blessed. Just blessed!” response.
In this Psalm, the author honestly tells God how horrible and uncomfortable his circumstances feel right now (vv. 7 & 10). He questions whether God has given up on him (ve. 9-10) and complains right to God about that concern.
I cannot count the number of times I’ve asked a venting friend, “Have you talked with God about that?” They inevitably reply, “He knows.”
Dear one, of course, God knows, but Him knowing is not the same as communicating your emotions and circumstances to Him directly. Absence from God does not make the heart grow fonder. The less we talk to God, the less we want to.
Our thirst for God will ebb and flow with the same intensity as our confidence that He wants us to pour out our hearts before Him (Psalm 62:8).
If you want to have thirst for God, you have to communicate your feelings and little (or big) life stuff TO God. You may not want to right now. Take that feeling as a thirst indicator, and talk to God anyway.
5. Cling to God’s character.
In the middle of his blunt, honest conversation with God, the author of this Psalm pauses to remember God’s character and actions. He could have picked any number of truths to stand upon when life got crazy, but he chooses these:
By day the LORD commands His steadfast love,
And at night His song is with me,
A prayer to the God of my life” (v. 8, ESV).
Truth, though often the opposite of our current emotions, forms the foundation of our faith.
Especially when life circumstances are horrible and our emotions are going crazy – the LORD’s steadfast love carries us through every day. Every night, His song surrounds us. What a beautiful word-picture. Like a lullaby for a small child, God’s grace surrounds us. We can rest, sending up sleepy prayers.
A focus on God’s character salts our spiritual food, creating even greater thirst {1}. We see something bigger and more beautiful than ourselves. John Piper uses the illustration of going to view the grand canyon {2}. We don’t behold majestic beauty like that to make much ourselves, but rather to be in awe.
But, self-talk encompassing only our feelings and frustrations, will cause our thirst to wane. We can become caught up in the difficulty and effectively place blinders over our eyes which will not allow us to see God’s heart for us and His plan for our future.
But, what if I just don’t want God right now?
You might be reading this article saying, “Yes, that’s all fine and good. But when it comes to God’s word and spiritual things. I’m just not thirsty right now. I don’t like water. And I just forget to drink.”
I hear you.
I have tried so many times to drink more water. It’s hard! Every month I have a spread in my bullet journal that tracks my water drinking. And… let’s just say, it’s not pretty!
Remembering to drink water during a busy day can be difficult, especially if I don’t feel thirsty. My body’s natural instinct for thirst has been diminished over the years so that I can go almost all day without more than a glass of water. Sound familiar?
The same thing can happen with my spiritual thirst. There are times where I just don’t desire, I don’t thirst for God or His word. We’ve talked about ways to cultivate our spiritual thirst above, now let’s discuss our common reasons for not drinking the Living Water (cf. John 7:37-39).
“I’m not Thirsty”
Those who study our physical bodies need for water have found that the suppression of our body’s natural signal for water causes us to lose our physical thirst. Meaning, not drinking water leads to not feeling thirsty.
Our spiritual lives work the same way. If we don’t drink from the Scriptures, we lose our desire for Bible study and prayer. This means, if we want to have a thirst, we have to drink even when we don’t feel thirsty. Sometimes that means diving in, sometimes that means starting with little sips.
“I don’t like water.”
Do you know anyone who prefers soda or southern sweet tea over water? Alex Charfen asks, “Water is foundational to our health. We can’t survive without it. So why would our bodies tell us to reject it? Why would we build up a ‘preference’ against it? The answer is simple. We have altered our palates to crave different flavors and sensations, like sweet, salty or carbonated.”
Have we done this with our spiritual palates?
A steady diet of inspirational quotes, “feel-good” devotionals, and Bible-light teachings make us feel good in the moment. But they ruin our desire for the depths of scriptures. What we take in spiritually will determine the things for which we thirst.
“I always forget.”
This is my biggest excuse for not drinking enough water throughout the day. I forget. I’ll fill my water bottle, and then it just sits there… all. day. long.
I have not structured my day so that water drinking happens. I’ll drink some at meals, and if I feel thirsty (maybe). Otherwise, my poor water-bottle sits unnoticed an unused. I (obviously) need a better plan for my water drinking.
Likewise, if I want to remember to spend time reading my Bible and praying, I must structure my day accordingly. Time with God doesn’t just happen. Like with drinking physical water, there are just too many things (ahem, preschoolers) to distract me.
I remind myself to read my Bible and pray by linking my devotional time with another activity, like my kid’s nap-time. Now, I just need to find a way to link drinking actual water with things I do throughout the day!
Dear Reader, your thirst for God will drive you to bathe in the riches of His love and compassion. I long for you to experience His joy and peace throughout every aspect of your day-to-day. If you are looking for ways to start sipping spiritual water again, or if you want to just dive deeply into a study of God’s word I encourage you to just begin.
Talk with God about where you are at. Test the waters by opening your soul to Him.
Hi! I’m Jessica Jenkins and also a seminary educated wife, mother of two, adventure lover, and storyteller. I thrive in helping people walk in awe of Jesus and rest in His comfort! That’s why I’m so passionate about creating devotional tools, Bible studies, and teaching the Biblical text in a real to life way. Visit my blog and connect with me on social media!
True hunger for God comes from a revelation of the fear of the Lord. When you’re grounded in the fear of the Lord, you want your life to bless Him, for His sake, more than for your own gain. Our hunger is fueled knowing that Jesus is the center of our salvation rather than ourselves. It’s all by Him, through Him and In the Old Testament, the Israelites were chosen as a nation to be priests and kings for God’s purposes and His glory. When they understood this, they were on the right track. When, on the other hand, they focused on themselves, whether they were blessed or not, they lost their way and followed other gods. The fear of the Lord was not at the centre of their hearts.