HUNGER AND THIRST FOR GOD

By Jemima Rayan

God made us for Himself:

Isaiah 43:21 says, 'This people I have formed for Myself; They shall declare My praise'. Once we discover that God has made us for Himself, our whole perspective of life changes. We will soon cease to have a worldly perspective and begin to have a Godly perspective of things. Every single person has in himself a longing for God, his creator. That is why we see people searching for the truth everywhere. The problem is they are searching in the wrong places. Even a small child who sees the parents reading the Bible and praying will easily comprehend that the most important thing in life is the relationship one has with the Lord Jesus. On the contrary, when a child has not seen anyone having a relationship with God in the family, begins to have a worldly perspective on all the things around him. It is that simple.

We are living in the last days and the Bible calls it evil days. Satan has a variety of things to offer us. There are all kinds of evil things out there. We see the people hungering after evil addictions and destroying their lives. This is when we need to seek God for Him to fill the earth with the hunger and thirst for the living God.

God fills the people who Hunger for Him:

We will never ever be frustrated when we hunger and thirst for Jesus. If we hunger for Him more, He will fill us more. He will reveal Himself to you more and more as you long for Him. You never get to a point in God when you will be so full that you will not need Him anymore. Like how your natural appetite works, you have to eat when you get hungry that doesn't mean that you will not get hungry again. Every time you are hungry you got to eat.

While God is always satisfying us, He is also continually increasing our hunger and thirst for more of Him. More you hunger and thirst for Him, the more will He reveal Himself to you and the more you will yearn for Him. When you have a longing for Jesus, no one needs to tell you to do the things of God. You cannot but be in the things of God. When you hunger and thirst for God, all you will want to be is in His presence all the time. You will be in prayer and fellowship with Him. When you have a relationship with God, your heart's deepest craving and your soul's greatest longing will be to know more about Jesus and His word. You will want to fellowship with Jesus more and more and spend time with His word. There is simply nothing more satisfying as the knowledge of who God is.

Jesus said, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled" (Matthew 5:6). Feed your soul with the word of God. You may be thinking, God, I don't know anything about what is called hungering and thirsting is all about. Begin to reach out for Jesus right now. Speak from your heart, Say, 'Lord Jesus, I want to have an intimate personal relationship with You. Give me a longing for you.' Soon you will see God moving in your life.

David had a soul that was thirsty:

When you sincerely ask God to show you the desire that God has placed within your heart for Jesus, that is one thing the Lord will never overlook, because it is the very thing that He wants for you above anything else. He knows that He can fulfill every longing of your heart. Why don't you tell God that you want Him to create within you a strong desire for Him. You will soon discover that there is nothing in life that compares with the hunger and thirst for the living God.

David said, "As the deer pants for the water brooks, 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?" (Psalm 42:1, 2). We need more Davids in our generation who will not seek the hand of God all the time but will seek God for who He is. There are plenty of folks out there whose prayer is threefold i.e., I, Me and Myself. We need people who will go after God. God is looking for people who will know that the reason they are created in this earth is to praise God. The Bible clearly describes it is Jesus, who has chosen us and not we who chose Him (John 15:16).

David said, "My soul follows close behind You" (Psalm 63:8). David was following God all the time. He had such a hunger and thirst for God. He had pleasure in singing about the goodness and greatness of God in his psalms. Even today those songs revives us because he sung from his heart.

Do you have Hunger and thirst for the Lord?

We live in a world that is hungry for so many things. We see people that are hungry for fame, position, power and riches. But God is always looking for people who are hungry for God. Jesus said in John 6: 35, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst."

Jesus always gives an invitation for us to come to him. Jesus said that the one who comes to Him would He by no means cast away.

Jesus said in Matthew 11:28, "Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest".

Isaiah 55:1,2 says, ' everyone who thirsts, Come to the waters; And you who have no money, Come, buy and eat. Yes, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.'

May the Lord give us a greater hunger and thirst for the living God. Amen.

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