How thirsty are you?

Every now and then a phrase from a book jumps out at me and makes a deep impression in my mind.  I've just started reading a book by Randy Clark called "God Can Use Little Ole Me," which is subtitled "Remarkable Stories of Ordinary Christians."  It's a book which highlights the wonderful truth that ordinary people can be used in extraordinary ways when they place their lives into God's hands and find their strength in him.  The book tells the stories of a number of people (including Randy Clark himself) for whom this has proved to be the case.

In the first chapter, Randy Clark relates a statement which had been made to him:

"We have as much of God as we want."

Initially, Clark didn't like the statement.  However, he writes, "The more I thought about it, the more I realised he was right.  It is one thing to have only a slight desire for God, and quite another to be so thirsty for him that nothing is more important than getting filled ... Realising we are dry is not the same as being filled.  God fills us according to our thirst.  The thirstier we are when we come to him, the more he fills us.  How thirsty are you?"

How thirsty are you?  Isn't that such a challenging question?  And the thought that God gives us as much of himself as we desire is equally challenging.  Am I really desperate for more of God, or am I content with the occasional experience of God, on my terms and when I feel the need?

There is a passage from John's gospel which has been in my thoughts for some time; words spoken by Jesus:

'Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them' (John 7:37&38).

The only qualification for receiving from Jesus is that we have a spiritual thirst and we draw close to him!  And as we drink of that life-giving water of the Spirit, we we are in turn able to bless others.

So the question I continue to wrestle with is, how thirsty am I?  Is pursuing God my  greatest desire, or do I put other things first?  I just can't get the thought out of my mind: 

"We have as much of God as we want."