Thirst-Pat Dague

God thirsts for us

I have always been drawn to the imagery of water in Scripture. Water flowing, filling, pouring out, baptizing, cleansing, healing. Without water, we become thirsty. How is it possible that God can thirst, we wonder, and yet we remember the words that Jesus spoke from His cross, “I thirst”. His was a desperate cry for souls, not just a physical need to be satisfied. The knowledge that God first loved us, and longs after us can barely be comprehended.

Spurgeon meditates on this God who thirsts for us:

“Christ was always thirsty to save men, and to be loved of men; and we see a type of his life-long desire when, being weary, he sat thus on the well and said to the woman of Samaria, “Give me to drink.” There was a deeper meaning in his words than she dreamed of, as a verse further down fully proves, when he said to his disciples, “I have meat to eat that ye know not of.” He derived spiritual refreshment from the winning of that women’s heart to himself. And now, brethren, our blessed Lord has at this time a thirst for communion with each one of you who are his people, not because you can do him good, but because he can do you good. He thirsts to bless you and to receive your grateful love in return; he thirsts to see you looking with believing eye to his fulness, and holding out your emptiness that he may supply it.”

We thirst for God

And then there is the longing we have for Him.

The Psalmist writes:
Psalm 63:1
O God, Thou art my God; I shall seek Thee earnestly; My soul thirsts for Thee, my flesh yearns for Thee, In a dry and weary land where there is no water.

Psalm 107:5-9
5 They were hungry and thirsty; their soul fainted within them. 6 Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble; He delivered them out of their distresses. 7 He led them also by a straight way, To go to an inhabited city. 8 Let them give thanks to the Lord for His lovingkindness, And for His wonders to the sons of men! 9 For He has satisfied the thirsty soul, And the hungry soul He has filled with what is good.

Psalm 143:5-6
I remember the days of old; I meditate on all Thy doings; I muse on the work of Thy hands. 6 I stretch out my hands to Thee; My soul longs for Thee, as a parched land.

In his book “The Pursuit of God “, Tozer speaks to the inner desire of the Christian to drink deeply at the font of Life, to satisfy his longing for God. He writes of those in Scripture who were God-intoxicated, who lived their lives immersed in and consumed with God:

“Come near to the holy men and women of the past and you will soon feel the heat of their desire after God. They mourned for Him, they prayed and wrestled and sought for Him day and night, in season and out, and when they had found Him the finding was all the sweeter for the long seeking. Moses used the fact that he knew God as an argument for knowing Him better. `Now, therefore, I pray thee, if I have found grace in thy sight, show me now thy way, that I may know thee, that I may find grace in thy sight’; and from there he rose to make the daring request, `I beseech thee, show me thy glory.’ God was frankly pleased by this display of ardour, and the next day called Moses into the mount, and there in solemn procession made all His glory pass before him.

David’s life was a torrent of spiritual desire, and his psalms ring with the cry of the seeker and the glad shout of the finder. Paul confessed the mainspring of his life to be his burning desire after Christ. `That I may know Him,’ was the goal of his heart, and to this he sacrificed everything. `Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but refuse, that I may win Christ’ (Phil 3:8). 

Lord, we cannot comprehend fully the love that so longs and thirsts for us, the ardent desire that caused You to pour yourself out for us. Increase in us, we pray, a similar desire to love and serve You in the brothers and sisters You put in our path. Make us so thirsty for You that nothing else satisfies! In Jesus’ Name. Amen!
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Pat Dague of Transfigurations is the wife of Attorney Raymond Dague and the mother of Ryan and Kevin.