Thirsty:
noun; feeling or having thirst; craving liquid.
In today’s common vernacular, thirsty is used by the cool kids to usually mean someone’s desire for attention or sexual satisfaction. Yeah, I had to get that out of the way, because when I speak to young people about having a thirst for God, they give me really weird looks. But it makes sense why that has become the connotation, right? To thirst means to long for something, be it water, attention, fulfillment, satisfaction, etc.
In Psalm 63:1, David writes:
"O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water." (ESV)
This isn’t the first time David uses the idea of being thirsty as longing for God. David spent a great deal of time in the Judean wilderness (think of a rocky desert) where water was scarce and worth fighting for. He realized that just as the human body has a biological need and a drive to find liquid sustenance, so the soul longs for God. In Psalm 42:2, David writes:
"My soul thirst for God, the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?" (ESV)
David is longing not just for some belief or set of traditions to fill the void left in his life. He’s not looking around at the spiritual options for something to give his life meaning. No, he is looking for the truth God, the Living God, not some wish-upon-a-star superstition, but for a real relationship with the Living God. He asks “when shall I come and appear before God?” When you study the original Hebrew, you’ll find that David isn’t just longing for a worship service or to appear before God, but he is longing for God’s face. In other words, he is seeking intimacy with his Creator.
There are so many things we thirst for, but they ultimately leave us longing for more. One cup of coffee is never enough. A cost of living raise at work is nice, but oh what you could do with more! Addictions always over promise and under deliver. But God? He satisfies. He quenches the thirst.
Jesus said in John 7 that “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.'” In Revelation 7:16, we see this description of those who follow Jesus: “They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water…”
Today, don’t try to fill up on the empty promises of attention or things this life has to offer. Quench your thirst by seeking after God with your whole heart.
Adam Will 