Thirsty for More of Jesus Christ

I have an odd love for water.

Ocean beaches, fountains, waterfalls, water noise apps, smelling fresh air after the rain, or merely drinking ice water. I love it all.

And strangely, I always have a water bottle with me. I can’t recall when that first started, but I know it was fully entrenched by high school and it is rare that I don’t have my nalgene nearby.

There is just something about water that I love.

Dying of Thirst

Have you ever been in a situation where you were desperate for water?

If I were to be honest, I think that is the undercurrent of my water bottle obsession—I don’t want to be caught anywhere with the need for a drink without any options. If I had a nightmare, it would be stranded in the Sahara with no water for hundreds of miles. Just thinking about the scenario causes me to reach for and take a long sip of the ice water sitting on the edge of my desk.

Okay, I’m back.

But let me ask you the question again. Have you ever experienced true thirst? A deep yearning and need for hydration? What if we had that level of desperation for Jesus?

The Psalmist knew what it meant to thirst, not so much for water, but for God Himself. The Psalmist declares:

“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 …” (Psalm 42:1-2).

Israel is a land that is marked by deserts and a deer wandering the wilderness could easily die if it didn’t find a constant source of water.

The Psalmist uses the analogy to compare the deer’s longing and desperation for water to his thirst for God. Like a man stranded in the Sahara who pants, faints, and obsesses over a single drop of water, like a deer panting for a stream or small pool of water, so too the Psalmist yearns, pants, and longs for God.

What about you?

Are you desperate, thirsty, and have a longing desire for Jesus? Are you like the deer whose sole satisfaction is found in the stream? The man, who, even after his fill, longs for one more cup of such pure and blissful drink? Is Jesus your sole source of delight, fulfillment, and life?

Andrew Murray was once asked if he was satisfied in Christ. Listen to his answer:

“You will ask me, are you satisfied? Have you got all you want? God forbid. With the deepest feeling of my soul I can say that I am satisfied with Jesus now; but there is also the consciousness of how much fuller the revelation can be of the exceeding abundance of His grace. Let us never hesitate to say, ‘This is only the beginning.'”*

A.W. Tozer said it this way, “O God, I have tasted Thy goodness, and it has both satisfied me and made me thirsty for more. … I want to want Thee; I long to be filled with longing; I thirst to be made more thirsty still, that so I may know Thee indeed.”**

Are you thirsty for more of Jesus Christ? Do you have a deep devotion? Does your soul pant and thirst for Him?

If not, pray and ask Him to give you such a desperate longing. It is one prayer He delights in answering.

Footnotes

*Andrew Murray quoted in V. Raymond Edman, They Found the Secret (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1984), 116.
** A.W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God (Camp Hill, PA: WingSpread, 2006), 20.