Thirsty: What Your Soul Is Actually Craving
TANYA TERRELLShare
Scripture: "As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God." Psalm 42:1 NIV
I did not recognize this verse when I first read it. But the moment I did, something in me went, "Yes. That's it. That's exactly it."
There is a word in this verse that stopped me: pants. Not the clothing. The action. A deer that is dehydrated, exhausted, and desperately searching for water does not gently stroll toward a stream. It gasps. It cries out. It is driven by a need so urgent that survival depends on finding what it is looking for.
That is what the psalmist is describing. And honestly? That is what I feel.
I have a yearning for God that I cannot fully explain. A craving for closeness, for His voice, for His input, for His presence in my everyday life. I want to hear from Him. I want to know He is near. I want that intimacy, that back-and-forth, that collaboration. The only thing I have ever wanted this badly from another person is my son, and even then, I am not sure it goes this deep.
So when I read this verse, my soul recognized itself in it.
Here is what I know about craving the wrong things.
We have all tried to fill an ache with something that was not built to fill it. Success. Approval. Control. Relationships. Accomplishments. Scrolling. Shopping. Staying busy so we do not have to sit with the feeling. And for a little while, those things work. Kind of. Enough to keep us distracted.
But the ache comes back. It always comes back.
And if your soul is still aching after you have tried everything else, it might be telling you something. It might be telling you that what you are really looking for is not something you can buy, earn, or find on a screen. It might be telling you that only one thing can actually quench it.
Jesus told a woman at the well: "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst." (John 4:13-14 NIV)
She had been looking for something to fill the void her whole life. Going back to the same wells. Getting the same results. And Jesus, a stranger who should not have even been speaking to her by the social standards of the time, sat down and told her the truth: I have what you are actually looking for.
Side note: we do not know her name. The Bible just calls her "the woman at the well." She had a real encounter with Jesus, ran back to her entire town, and told everyone. She was one of the first evangelists in the New Testament. No name in the text, maximum impact. That tension deserves its own conversation.
But back to the point.
The devotion I read today challenged me to make a mental list of everything I want to accomplish and then ask myself how many of those things include spending time with God. How many of those goals actually require His presence.
I sat with that for a minute.
Everything I want to do, I cannot do without Him. Not because I am saying it to sound spiritual. Because it is literally true. The things I want from my life, the vision I carry, my current resources, my access, my abilities right now? None of it gets me where I am going on my own. I need Him to move. I need His provision, His direction, His favor. I need Him in the room.
And beyond the big picture stuff, I just want Him. Daily. Present. Near.
A year ago, I could not string together five days of consistently opening my Bible app. That is the truth. Today, I get up at least an hour earlier than I have to so that I can start my day with Him before the day starts with me. My morning includes my YouVersion guided prayer and scripture, the Bible Recap, my affirmations, the Lord's Prayer, and a morning prayer from a guy on Instagram named Marcus Stanley. Some mornings I snooze too many times and have to catch up throughout the day, but every day, some part of that routine gets done.
That shift did not happen because I got more disciplined. It happened because I got more desperate. And this type of desperate, I am learning, is not a bad place to be.
The devotion ended with this reminder: spending time with God is a basic spiritual need. Not a bonus. Not extra credit. A need. And it is powerful enough to change the course of your life.
I am a testimony to that.
If your soul is aching and you cannot figure out why, I am not here to tell you what to do. I am just here to tell you what I found. There is a stream. It is available. It is free. And it is the only thing I have ever tried that actually worked.
Ask yourself: What have you been drinking that keeps leaving you thirsty?
Want to start your own morning routine with God? The YouVersion Bible App is free. The Bible Recap is free. All you need is 20 minutes and the willingness to show up.