Dear BPCWA worshipper, As we close off the year, it is important to reconsider our 2025 Church theme, Thirsting after God, from Psalm 63:1 “A Psalm of David, when he was in the wilderness of Judah. O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is”.  This must be something which every Christian is interested in, because it is about our God, the Almighty Creator of heaven and earth, who is our Heavenly Father. Christianity isn’t about outward rituals and forms, but about the reconciliation of sinners to God for a very personal relationship. We must care about building and pursuing (or thirsting, as our theme puts it) after our God and Father. Every Christian will have a desire to build this fellowship and communion with God through the Holy Spirit in their lives.

Dehydrating. What do you do when you’re thirsty? Most likely, drink a beverage. However, not all beverages are good for thirst. Take soft drinks, for example. Some call this the hidden dehydration trap, because drinking a sugary beverage disrupts our hydration. Cool, carbonated sodas trick the brain into thinking that you’re quenching your thirst – think of those adverts of temptingly cold Coca Cola with ice on a hot day with condensation on the sides of the cup! However, the high sugar content causes your cells to lose water, leading to cellular dehydration, which means you’re in effect drying out. In a spiritual sense, this can also happen to us. When the Holy Spirit puts in us a yearning to know God, we can negate it as we desire and pursue the world. Instead of finding our delight and pleasure in God, we can follow unbelievers and fill that emptiness with the things of the world. Christians may turn to pop music, TV, online programs, shopping, the epicurean lifestyle, carnal friendships, even hobbies and other things that draw us toward the world instead of the things of God. And as we spend more time on these, that desire for the things of God becomes subdued and perhaps even undesirable over time, because they are so “bland” as compared to the excitement the world offers. Those who lack thirst for God may comfort themselves that others, like them, are not thirsting after Him. Let us reflect on our lives – if we are passive when it comes to the things of God but are bubbling with energy when it comes to enjoying worldly things, this must be an alarm bell for us to return to God. At the close of the year, let us have an honest heart in inward reflection about the state of thirst, or lack of it, for God.

Rehydrating. Try as one may with other quick fixes, the only thing that will satisfy the heart of a Christian is fellowship with God. The only solution to spiritual thirst is to renew our fellowship and communion. Just as believing that a cup of Coke isn’t going to do good to your body for thirst, you know you must turn to what truly hydrates for health – water. Realising that you are thirsty is insufficient. You must be willing to drink what is needed and stick with it. Likewise, to admit that you are dry in your soul is not sufficient, much less to feel “virtuous” that we admit we are dry. If there is dryness in your spiritual life, the true sweetness that will last is what you probably already know in your mind – the fellowship with God through His Word and prayer. Of course, it begins with your personal private devotion. This isn’t just a daily routine and cursory Bible reading, but it is with a heart to listen to God’s voice as He reveals Himself to you through His Word. It means intentionally setting aside time for your personal devotion. Time and, yes, tearing your heart away from the distractions that you used to crave in the world. You must meditate on the Word and allow it to work on your heart. The worldly wise will disdain this for its very simplicity and its “blandness”, but God says that we should be sanctified and cleansed “with the washing of water by the word” (Eph 5:26). As we read, we should look out for areas where we have sinned against God by His standards, not by the world’s. This must, of course, be followed by repentance and contrition before Him in closet prayer, where the fellowship is mended and renewed. There is the reassurance from our Heavenly Father that “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1Jn 1:9). But we must not stop there, but continue to build upon that restoration of communion in our daily walk. There must continue to be the daily spiritual cleansing as we walk in the world (Joh 13:10). This is the only way to prevent us from going back into the world and its false hydration.

Re-energised to thirst more. It does not, however, stop only at your personal quiet time. Meditation on the Word of God in your quiet time will create in the Christian greater admiration, love, delight, and desire to know God more. The thirst will grow, and it will be evident externally in your walk, not just inwardly. King David longed to be back in the sanctuary where he developed the thirst to see God’s power and glory.  We must also follow the pattern of the early Christians, who gathered in church, “and they continued stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers” (Act 2:42). Christians should assemble as His body (Heb 10:25). Church is also where God has ordained that His Word will be preached, His children receive reproof, rebuke, and exhortation with His doctrines (2Ti 4:2). One who is thirsting after God will be energised to know how to grow that relationship with God more intimately. He would want to seek to deal with sins in his life, or to yearn to please Him more in his daily living. There would be a desire for spiritual growth and not to justify the life on the low spiritual plains they’ve chosen to live. Oftentimes, we become irritated and annoyed by rebuke and reproof. The reasons are that we want to avoid dealing with our sins, and there is no thirst to grow in communion with God. Coming to learn in church and facing up to where we can be more sanctified is how your thirst for God can grow and know more about Him. This is God’s plan for His children – His formula, not mine. Trust it and come. 

Thirsting to see God’s power and glory. King David’s thirst was not to be delivered from his present troubles so that he could return to enjoy his palace food and bed again. Even in the most physically trying situation, the longing of King David’s heart and mind was all about God. He longed to return to uninterrupted fellowship and pursuit to see God’s power and glory. Our thirst must ultimately be about seeing God for who He is, not for deliverance from troubles in life. Even when we pray for help, like King David, it must be because we want to be able to see and know Him more, and worship Him as we ought to. Sadly, we are often not only uninterested to know God like King David. We even introduce and unnecessarily bring upon ourselves distractions that quench any little desire for God’s glory. Let us move on to live on a biblical plane of why we thirst after and pursue God, which is to see Him for who He is, to adore, extol, and praise Him. Remember, the more we see of His power and glory, the achievements and things of the world will be as dung to our souls. Do you thirst after dung?

I end with this question once again – how is your thirst after God? We can bemoan the loss of many things – the Hebrews lusted after the fish, cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and the garlick (Num 11:5). But we must do more than moan if we lack a thirst after God. The sad fact is, even many Christians today may disdain this and even call it “legalism”.  That is the very reflection of their lack of thirst, which they need to deal with. Thirsting after God is something that we must personally want, before we will commit to it and have an interest in growing throughout our lives, day by day. I wonder if it grieves our omniscient God when He looks down and sees our hearts. Thirsting for God is the only thing that will keep us yearning for heaven, having a single eye full of light, and increasing in our love for God when we see His lovingkindness (Psa 63:3), until the day when we will behold with our eyes His power and His glory (Psa 63:2). May our prayers be,  

“Thee will I love, till Holy Ghost fire, Fill all my soul with pure desire”

Yours in our Lord’s service,
Pastor