Chasing the Thirst: Why our Deepest Desires Point to God

Introduction

Have you ever gotten something you really wanted but then a week later, it didn’t feel the same?

A few months ago I got a new Iphone. My old was an was 11, it was starting to really slow down, I was constantly running out of storage, the camera felt worse than pictures my wife was taking on hers and the battery would die after 3 hours into the day.

So when I went to get a new Iphone I was pumped about the new features, longer battery, the speed of this phone compared to the old one. It was awesome….for about two weeks.

Now it’s just a phone and when I see other people with the Pro Max I get jealous and think about how I should have just gotten that one instead and i’m no longer content, but wanting something more.

You ever had that happen? Maybe it was something like a gaming system, a car, or when you reached your goal you just moved on to the next thing because the shine wore off.

Why does that happen? Why do our desires always seem to outrun what we can get?

The argument from desire says that every natural desire has a real object and the deepest desire of your soul points to God.

The Bible sys that’s not a bug, but it’s actually a clue. Scripture shows us our desires aren’t random, they point to something real. It reveals that the things we try to fill ourself with on this earth never really give us all we crave. The argument from Desire demonstrates that the gaping hole in our hearts finds it’s fulfillment only in Jesus.

Point 1: Desires Point to Real Fulfillments

Psalm 42:1–2 “As a deer longs for flowing streams, so I long for you, God. I thirst for God, the living God. When can I come and appear before God?”

Explain

The picture that these verses paint are something that every single person knows. Your body knows when it needs water. You’ll begin to have dry mouth and it’s hard to talk. You can get a headache because you’re not properly hydrated. Sometimes you’ll get tired and fatigued from needing water.

The word picture given to us uses the same illustration of the deer longing to be satisfied with what it needs most to live, water. It’s a basic undeniable desire that describes what the human soul longs for most, God.

Just like the deer panting for water and thirsting for what it needs, we too have desires in our lives. These desires aren’t tricks, they are a signal that something in us needs to be satisfied and it’s searching for what will fill it.

And I’m not just talking about things like water and food that we crave because our body needs them to live. I mean things that our heart aches for and sometimes we don’t have a name to actually put on it. We have things we desire like love and affection from people. Approval from those around us. We desire success and attention. We have desires like being understood and feeling heard by people. Things that are deep in our soul that need to be filled by something.

Personal Story

I have this memory from high school that now I look back on and remember as a core memory or realizing what I was actually desiring. I ran track and my high school was a decent size, about 2000 students so on the track team there was probably like 30 hurdlers with me. But as we were doing drills one day, after I finished my drills I’d come back to the front of the line where my coach was, and I’d ask “did you see me? How did I do? What do I need to fix?” and because there was so many of us he could only watch 1-2 at a time to give feedback. But after every rep I would come back to him and ask because he kept saying he wasn’t able to see me this time. Every time I got that response, it crushed me for some reason. So I kept asking, over and over again all practice. And it wasn’t until he finally responded being annoyed at me and I think probably feeling overwhelmed he said back “Alex, there are too many of you, I can’t watch you every time.”

And now as I look back, what I realize is one of the things I crave most was actually the entire reason I kept asking him. I wanted his approval and his attention. I wanted him to think I was worth watching and good enough to give feedback to.

Ecclesiastes 3:11 “He has made everything appropriate in its time. He has also put eternity in their hearts, but no one can discover the work God has done from beginning to end.”

In Ecclesiastes, the teacher or Solomon go through a limitus test. Throughout the entire letter that feels like a personal journal entry to the wealthiest, most successful person we could ever imagine. He tries everything and just doesn’t tell his mind, body, or desires no. He seeks out everything he desires.

But at the end of the day, he starts to realize something. God has put eternity into the hearts of humans. It’s a built in ache for something that is forever and things that are finite, have no eternal value, will never satisfy. They can’t fill the gap that we are trying to fill.

In 2005 Tom Brady was interviewed about winning the Super Bowl three times. He’s at the peak of any football players desire and he’s won it all not just once, but 3 times. In the interview he goes on to say “why do I have 3 Super Bowl rigns and still think there’s something greater out there for me? There has to be more than this.”

In a similar story John D. Rockefeller who started an oil business and controlled about 90% of US oil refining was considered the richest American ever at his time. Once he was asked how much money is enough? His answer “just a little bit more.”

These two men had everything they could ever ask for and yet, they were left saying there was something else needed, the money wasn’t enough and they needed more.

Maybe you’ve noticed it too. You feel empty after bing watching netflix. You get everything you wanted for Christmas, but immediately think of something else you want. That’s your heart echoing for eternity, pointing beyond the temporary. You long for something that will fully satisfy for all eternity and not leave you longing for more.

Point 2: Our Deepest Desires are for the Transcendent

Ecclesiastes 3:11 “He has made everything appropriate in its time. He has also put eternity in their hearts, but no one can discover the work God has done from beginning to end.”

Explain

Saying that we crave eternity is a difficult concept to grasp. It doesn’t feel real and sounds vauge. Our minds can’t picture it or understand it because we don’t have it. But what Solomon is saying is that everything we desire like beauty, justice, love, wealth, health, or relationship does not satisfy us.

Ecclesiastes says something that feels incredibly honest about the human experience. Eternity in our hearts. It means that deep down every human carries a sense that this world isn’t enough. We were made for something lasting, something permanent, something that doesn’t fade, break, or disappoint.

And that explains something about us, doesn’t it? Why success never full satisfies. Why relationships, even good ones, can’t carry all the weight of our hopes. Why achievements feel amazing for a moment but then we’re on to the next one.

this is because everything in this world is finite, but your desires are not. your heart keeps asking for more because it was built for more.

That’s why no amount of likes ever feels like enough. That’s why new things eventually feel old. That’s why even your happiest moments still feel fragile and you wish you could freeze them in time.

You don’t just want joy, you want lasting joy. You don’t just want love, you want unbreakable love.

That doesn’t mean the thinks you desire are bad, it means they were never meant to be ultimate. But it leaves us wondering, where all that is found.

Psalm 42:11 “Why, my soul, are you so dejected? Why are you in such turmoil? Put your hope in God, for I will still praise him, my Savior and my God.”

The Psalmist asks the same question. Why is it that our hearts long for so much more? Why is it that every time we think we want something and we get it, just shortly after we want more or notice the flaws that it has.

Amid the frustration, he commands his soul to hope in God. The despair or frustration from noticing and longing for satisfaction and fulfillment is actually misplaced desires. But what the Psalmist helps us understand is that redirecting the desires actually brings about praise and salvation.

Here’s the argument; if the lesser desires like food, achievement, money, success, friendship, relationship have real objects like the dessert, award, paycheck, advancement, laughter and communication why do they not lead to the greatest joy? Why do they still leave us thirsty for more?

Because with God, our desires make sense as he completely satisfies them.

Likes and followers on your social media give a quick hit of excitement. But eventually that fades. Your deepest thirst, the only way that it will be completely satisfied is for the infinite one to fill the gap and it points to the ultimate desire, God himself.

Point 3: Christ as our Ultimate Happiness

John 4:13–14 “Jesus said, “Everyone who drinks from this water will get thirsty again. But whoever drinks from the water that I will give him will never get thirsty again. In fact, the water I will give him will become a well of water springing up in him for eternal life.””

Here Jesus is interacting with a woman who is trying to fill and find herself secure through relationships. Jesus exposes her even though he doesn’t know her. He reveals himself as he demonstrates to her that she’s had multiple husbands and yet she’ll always long for someone better.

Jesus offers her at the well living water that quenches forever. Jesus himself is the living water. Our desires are signals that are often misaimed and misdirected at other things that leave them hanging. Ecclesiastes calls it our hearts longing for eternity. Here we come to see and understand that Jesus is the one who only fully satisfies our desires. Only God can fill the God-sized gap that is in your life.

John 6:35 ““I am the bread of life,” Jesus told them. “No one who comes to me will ever be hungry, and no one who believes in me will ever be thirsty again.”

Jesus isn’t like the band aid of the new game, next viral video, perfect grades or next relationship. Jesus himself is the bread of life. He is the ultimate satisfaction. When Psalm 16:11 says the fullness of joy, that is referring to God’s presence fulfilled in Jesus and Jesus alone.

You see sin twists our desires. It over promises and under delivers every time. It leaves us longing. But Jesus redeems our desires. He thirsted on the cross to quench yours forever. Fulfillment is only found in Jesus. If you’re tired of chasing, receive the bread of life himself.

Jesus took the emptiness our sin creates so we could receive the fullness only God gives.

Personal Example

This continues to happen to me. There are still moments where I try to fill my life with things that can’t hold the weight of what I’m putting on them. I long for approval from people. I’m always left wondering if they liked me, did I do a good job, do I fit in, and i’m constantly feeling like I need their affirmation to fill it. But the truth is that no matter how much they maybe affirm me or if I find out all is good, it’s still never enough. I’m still left second guessing or the next person I interact with I do the same thing over again.

But when I look to Jesus, I see that it’s completely different with him. I never have to be left wondering if God is happy with me. He sees me as a son that he is well pleased with. I never have to question if I did enough because he’s the one who’s done it all for me. God himself fills the longing of approval and affirmation completely and I’m really just longing for him more than I am others. It’s when I remember this that I’m fully satisfied.

Application

Psalm 42 and Ecclesiastes don’t leave us thirsty, they point to the source that our soul longs for. The New Testament reveals that in Christ himself. Our desires point us to real things but the deepest ones only Christ alone can give us ultimate happiness.

What is it that your soul longs for? What is it that you personally are trying to satisfy? Is it approval of people by trying to do everything you can to make the people around you happy? Or constantly wanting to impress them so that you’ll be let into the inner circle? Are you chasing the grades only to get the 100% to only feel like you need to do it all over again to keep up the status of successful and smart?

Jesus is better than any relationship you will try to fill yourself with. Eventually that person or people will let you down. They’ll mess up, frustrate you, drop the ball, forget something, make you angry. But Jesus? He’ll never let you down and will never leave you.

The affirmation of likes or viral videos will always leave you wanting more clicks, followers, the next viral hit. You’re seeking to fill yourself with what people think of you. But Jesus himself is better because you don’t have to work for his approval. He’s already loved you so much that he’s been approved of on your behalf. He’s the one looking over you with joy that never runs out.

Some of you don’t need more answers. You need language for your longing.

Psalm 42:1–2 “As a deer longs for flowing streams, so I long for you, God. I thirst for God, the living God. When can I come and appear before God?”

Eternity in your heart is leading you somewhere. Let it lead you to the eternal one himself. Be led to Jesus, the one who will fill you and satisfy you.