A THIRST FOR GOD

O God, you are my God,
earnestly I seek you;
my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you,
in a dry and weary land
where there is no water.
Psalm 63:1

I remember my first experience with a desert. Our family traveled from the lush, green vegetation of the Louisiana Gulf Coast where I was raised to the empty, sometimes monochromatic horizon of the American West—a setting of sand the cactus plant only occasionally broke up. As a child who was accustomed to green trees, colorful flowers, and flowing rivers, I felt the desert was very unwelcoming.

Sooner or later, every human heart will experience its desert seasons. Even the most sincere believer will know times when the lushness and beauty of a rich prayer life grow stale and colorless. Rivers dry up. Flowers fade. And the green leaves that had given us shade fall to the ground, leaving our souls exposed to new and brutal rays of reality.

How do we approach God in these desert times? There may be a temptation born of pride to hide our thirst—to bring God only our abilities, our solutions, our strengths, our works. We may find ourselves wanting to disguise our neediness under the camouflage of our “Sunday best” by polishing our spiritual shoes and coming into his presence as though we, in our humanity, actually had something to offer him who is divine.

The truth is, all we ever have to bring to him is our emptiness, our lack, our nothingness apart from his all. All we ever have to bring is our total need for him in our lives.

David never resisted that deep and troubling truth. He understood that there was a hole in his heart that only God could fill. And he rushed toward the Source of his healing. Because David had many sins, he never lost touch with his thirst for God’s mercy.

If you’re not in the desert today, simply thank the Lord for his goodness to you and then intercede for someone who is. But if you are in that arid landscape, don’t try to camouflage your need. Learn the lesson of the thirsty heart. Cry out to the Lord as David did and know that your prayer will be heard.

Father God, I thank you for the seasons of my journey for the times of sorrow and the days of joy. Thank you that you are with me through it all, drawing me ever more deeply into your reality, meeting my needs, and using every conflict to teach me new things. Father, increase my thirst for you. May I never be content with where I am, but may I ever desire to know you more. In Jesus’ name, AMEN.

Culled from 101 Most Powerful Prayers In The Bible