God has made us in such a way that we experience yearnings and cravings. Left to ourselves, we are incomplete and insufficient, feeble and sorely lacking. And though we are often driven and motivated by our physical longings, deeper still are our spiritual longings. Just as we cannot live physically without food and water, we cannot live spiritually without spiritual sustenance.
F.F. Bruce says, rightly, that the deepest thirst of all is our thirst for God, and the reason is simple: The God who created us formed us in such a way that we are not meant to exist apart from him. To live apart from God is the spiritual equivalent of trying to live without food and water. It will lead only to weakness, pain, and death.
This being the case, may we echo King David, who prayed, “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” (Psalm 63:1). This is a prayer God delights to answer, for he loves to meet our insufficiency with his bounty, our emptiness with his fullness.
