Squelching or Quenching the Thirst

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. Psalm 42:1,2 (New King James Version)

Julie Ackerman Link said in her booklet Loving God With All My Heart, “The thing that frustrates me the most is a reliable indicator of my highest desire, and my highest desire indicates what I worship.” Desires are the very things that drive us to do the things we do and to chase after the things we chase after. I so often want to just squelch, ignore, or deaden the desires that remain unfulfilled in me. But God is nudging me to bring the desires to Him and allow Him to meet them.

When He becomes my desire and the One I look to for the satisfying of my desires then my life takes on a whole new dimension. I begin to feel more at home in my skin because I am finally turning to the right source and living life as God intended. Freedom and growth come as I once again realize I was created with desires that were given in order to draw me to God. But Satan loves to dangle counterfeits in front of me and convince me the desires can be met in them rather than in God. He will even take the things God meant as gifts and use them as possible means for satisfaction.

For instance, it is all too easy for me to look to relationships to make me feel loved, affirmed, accepted, and complete. But the need for those things run deeper than any person can possibly reach. It is like trying to quench my thirst with a thimble full of water…it is just not going to be enough. So in an effort to not feel the disappointment from my counterfeit sources, I condemn myself for wanting to be loved, affirmed, accepted, and complete, and try to deaden the desires. To live my life in a state of numbness becomes my answer.

But God says there is a better way to live my life! Look to Him for the fulfillment of those desires. Bring the longings and cravings to Him. He is the only One who is fully available and able to do for me what no person can do. Will He ever use people in my life? Absolutely. But never as the primary source. NEVER!

Why did the Psalmist proclaim God as the One He most desired? Because he knew there was no other way to quench his thirst. He longed to drink freely and completely from the only Fountain of Living Water!

Father, You alone can quench the thirst that persists in me. May I learn to drink my fill of You. Be the core desire of my inner person! Amen.

All Who Are Thirsty - Robin Mark
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrnvSf2dX18&feature=related

Getting into God's Word and letting God's Word get into me one truth at a time.