Thirst for God

Pastor Gary Oser

If you go to the doctor for regular checkups, s/he will usually ask you a variety of questions in order to help diagnose your health. Our spiritual health is even more important than our physical health. One way of diagnosing our spiritual health is to ask ourselves some questions.

I ran across a book that is very helpful with this: Ten Questions to Diagnose Your Spiritual Health by Donald Whitney. I would like to share one of these questions with you each month over the next ten months in this newsletter.

The first question is: Do you thirst for God?

To answer this question correctly, we need to first understand the word “thirst.”

One of the definitions in my dictionary is “to have a strong desire, to crave for something.” A lot of people want just enough of God to be sure they go to heaven when they die but have little desire for Him—let alone a strong desire. Maybe the psalmist gives one of the best pictures of thirsting for God when he says in Psalm 42:1-2, “As the deer pants for the water brooks, so my soul pants for You, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.”

If you can visualize a deer running through the woods in the heat of the day, panting, looking eagerly for a place to get a drink of refreshing water, is that the way you desire God? Is your thirst for God strong enough that it gets you out of bed in the morning to spend some time with Him before you start your day? Is your thirst for God greater than your thirst for sports, for the material things of this world, for a dream vacation or cruise, or other things?

If you are honest that your thirst for God is not what it should be, there are some things you can do to increase your thirst. Donald Whitney shares three in his book.

First, meditate on Scripture. Go beyond just reading the Word of God. Allow it to soak into you by thinking about it, asking questions, and finding ways to apply what you have read to your life.

Second, pray through Scripture. Let the words that you read from God’s Word be your words to Him in prayer.

Finally, read books written by people who had a thirst for God. One excellent book would be The Pursuit of God by A.W. Tozer.

My prayer is that we will each be so thirsty for God that we will spend more time with Him in the Word and prayer and meeting together with His people to worship Him.