Scripture

Psalm 42:1-2 NLT

As the deer longs for streams of water, so I long for you, O God. I thirst for God, the living God. When can I go and stand before him?

Consider

What is it that we thirst for?

• Love and belonging
• Joy and peace.
• Security.
• Loyal companionship.
• Perfect understanding.
• Unconditional acceptance.
• Forgiveness without strings.

We yearn for perfect fulfillment. Yet when we seek these things in our human relationships, we are bound to be disappointed, sooner or later.

In the first flush of a love relationship or friendship, we may believe that here at last is someone we can count on to fulfill our deepest and most intimate needs. Here is a soul mate, a companion of the heart, someone so in tune with us that words seem hardly necessary for mutual understanding.

Then comes a falling out of synch, a misunderstanding, a perceived betrayal. Our perfect oneness fractures. We are left with pain and sadness to realize that we are separate, alone before God, and still thirsting for what no friend or lover can supply.

God gives us a thirst for what only he can supply because he wants to draw us near to Himself. Every person born on this earth feels this thirst, but not everyone will acknowledge the reality of God and our need for him. Only those who seek God’s living water offered through the redemptive work of the cross will receive the perfect love and tender mercy that each of us desperately needs. In his faithfulness and generosity, God covers our faults and failings with the blood of Jesus, and even gives us the grace we need to forgive other people who have failed us.

Pray

Loving Father, when I am angry or hurt because someone has disappointed me, help me to recognize what I am truly thirsting for. Give me faith and trust to look to You to meet that need, and give me grace to forgive the person who has failed me.

Reflect

Psalm 63:1; John 4:13-14

Ponder

What is my deepest need that human relationships have been unable to satisfy?